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Molasses Bars

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Molasses Bars

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Sift together the flour, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, lard, butter, molasses, boiling water, and baking soda until well combined.

  3. Chill the mixture overnight.

  4. The next morning, roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick.

  5. Sprinkle the chopped walnuts over the dough and cut into bars.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + walnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, ginger, nutmeg, clove, sugar, butter, molasses):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Chickpeafits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

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

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