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Dessert

Soft Gingerbread

A moist gingerbread cake made with molasses, milk, egg, butter, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger 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 ↓

Soft Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix the molasses, milk, egg, and melted butter.

  4. Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients and mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and moisture, and a deep flavor to the gingerbread.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the crumb as the batter bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps give the crumb its structure as it sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift the batter and help it rise.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Milk
Adds moisture that keeps the crumb soft and loosens the batter.

The step that matters

Combine the dry and wet ingredients gently. Mixing until just combined keeps the batter tender. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the gingerbread tough and dense rather than soft.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, egg, butter, 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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