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Dessert

Crisp Ginger Snaps

A crisp cookie made from molasses, lard, vinegar, baking soda, ginger, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Crisp Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. In a pot, heat molasses, lard, salt, and vinegar together.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in baking soda and ginger.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool, then mix in enough flour to form a stiff dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough very thin and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until crisp.

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. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Vinegar + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Molasses + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,253 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, depth of flavour and moisture to the dough.
Lard
Provides fat that keeps the cookies tender and helps them crisp as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic vinegar and molasses to lift and lighten the dough.
Flour
Provides the structure that turns the mixture into a stiff, shapeable dough.

The step that matters

Stir in the baking soda after removing from heat. Baking soda reacts quickly with the acid in the vinegar and molasses, releasing gas. Adding it while the mixture is still very hot can cause it to foam over, and the leavening is strongest when the reaction is managed before the dough is shaped.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, vinegar, 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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