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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A sweet, spiced cookie made with molasses, sugar, ginger, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Heat the molasses until scalding.

  2. Stir in the baking soda while it foams.

  3. Add the sugar, egg, ginger, and vinegar, mixing well.

  4. Gradually add flour until the dough is light enough to roll.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough thinly and cut into shapes.

  2. Bake in a preheated 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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and rich flavor typical of ginger snaps.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and vinegar to produce gas that lightens the dough.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown and crisp as they bake.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Provides the structure that lets the dough be rolled and hold its cut shapes.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking soda while the molasses foams. Baking soda reacts with the acid in the molasses and vinegar, so it must be added while the mixture is still foaming and reacting. Adding it late or in the wrong proportion can leave a bitter or soapy taste or uneven rising.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, egg, vinegar, 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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