Name: Molasses Cookies
Ingredients: 2 eggs, separated; 1 cup brown sugar; 1 cup melted lard and butter; 1 cup New Orleans molasses; 2 teaspoons ginger; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 4 tablespoons boiling water; flour, as needed to stiffen

Why it works: Sugar and molasses 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 ↓

Molasses Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Beat the egg whites and yolks separately.
In a bowl, mix the brown sugar, melted lard and butter, and molasses.
Add the beaten egg yolks, ginger, baking soda, and boiling water to the mixture.
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff.
Do not roll the dough too thin.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Jalapenofits about as well
Gingerthe original

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