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Ginger Cookies

A spiced cookie dough made with molasses, brown sugar, butter, lard, eggs, sour milk, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger Cookies

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ginger Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Beat together the brown sugar and eggs.

  2. Add the molasses, butter and lard mixture, sour milk, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk before adding.

  4. Sift in flour until the dough is stiff enough to stir with a spoon.

  5. Work in more flour on a floured surface until the dough is rather stiff.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough to ½ inch thick and cut out cookies.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a deep, slightly bitter sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
Butter and lard mixed
Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the dough.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas, helping the cookies rise and spread.
Sour milk
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and adds tenderness.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk before adding. Dissolving baking soda evenly in the acidic sour milk lets it react throughout the dough, so the cookies rise evenly instead of developing bitter, soapy pockets.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, egg, milk, cinnamon, clove. 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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