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Dessert

Nuremberg Gingerbread

A spiced gingerbread cake with almonds, candied peel, and cloves, baked in tins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Nuremberg Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Beat the eggs in a bowl.

  2. Add the grated nutmeg, pounded cloves, chopped candied peel, and sugar; mix for 10 minutes.

  3. Slowly add the flour, salt, and baking powder, then stir in the chopped almonds.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into tins ½ inch deep.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

  3. Icing with chocolate and cut into slices or strips.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Clove + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps keep the crumb moist and tender.
Sweet almonds
Add richness, texture and body to the crumb.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes lighter.

The step that matters

Mixing the sugar and eggs for 10 minutes. Beating eggs with sugar traps air that gives the cake lift before it sets. Stopping early leaves a dense, heavy texture, so the full time matters.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, nutmeg, sugar, flour, almond):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, nutmeg, sugar, flour, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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