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Dessert

Scotch Gingerbread

A gingerbread loaf with raisins, ginger, almonds, molasses, and shortening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Scotch 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.

Mix the batter

  1. Sift together cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, flour, sugar, baking soda, and baking powder.

  2. Stir in raisins, ginger, and chopped almonds.

  3. Heat molasses and shortening until boiling, then mix into the dry ingredients.

  4. Add the beaten eggs and mix well.

Bake

  1. Pour into a loaf pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour, or in a sheet for 30 minutes.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the gingerbread's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweet flavor to the gingerbread.
Shortening
Adds fat for a tender crumb and moisture in the finished cake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the gingerbread rise and darken.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to give the gingerbread additional lift.

The step that matters

Mix the molasses and shortening only until boiling, then combine. Heating the molasses and shortening until boiling melts the fat and thins the molasses so it blends evenly into the dry ingredients. Stirring the batter only until combined keeps the crumb tender rather than tough.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, sugar, raisin, almond, molasses):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, sugar, raisin, almond, molasses. 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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