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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A sweet, spiced cookie made with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, flour, and shortening, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the Cottolene in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the sugar, then mix in the molasses, salt, and ginger.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add it to the mixture.

  4. Gradually incorporate the flour until a dough forms.

  5. Roll out the dough very thin and cut into round cakes.

Bake

  1. Bake on a greased pan in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until crisp.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark flavor typical of ginger snaps.
Cottolene
Provides fat that tenderizes the dough and helps the cookies crisp.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the dough together and sets as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of molasses to lift the dough and promote browning.
Ginger
Contributes the sharp, warm aroma that defines the cookie.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that complements the ginger.

The step that matters

Roll out the dough very thin. Thin dough loses moisture quickly in a hot oven, so it dries and crisps through. Thicker pieces stay soft in the centre and may not turn crisp.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, cinnamon, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, cinnamon, flour. 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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