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Bread

Soft Gingerbread

A moist gingerbread loaf made with molasses, brown sugar, butter, water, baking soda, allspice, ginger, apple, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Soft Gingerbread

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 batter

  1. In a saucepan, heat the molasses, brown sugar, allspice, ginger, and butter together until melted.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the water.

  3. Sift the baking soda into the flour, then gradually add it to the mixture.

  4. Fold in the sliced apple.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into greased bread pans.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + appletop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Allspice + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides dark colour, deep flavour and moisture, and keeps the gingerbread soft.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, lifting and lightening the crumb.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness, and helps keep the crumb moist.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes to browning.

The step that matters

Sifting the baking soda into the flour. Baking soda must be evenly dispersed so it reacts uniformly with the acidic molasses. Clumps can leave bitter spots and uneven rising.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, allspice, ginger, 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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