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 ↓
Ginger Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the eggs, sour cream, syrup, melted butter, yellow sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and baking soda.
Gradually stir in the flour until well combined.
Pour the batter into two greased dripping pans or patty tins.
Bake and serve
Bake slowly until golden brown, then cut into squares.
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.
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Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, helping the batter set as it bakes.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and tenderness, and its acidity reacts with the baking soda.
- Syrup
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that holds the bread together as it sets.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the sour cream to produce gas that lifts the batter.
The step that matters
Bake slowly until golden brown. Sugar and syrup brown quickly, so a low oven lets the centre cook through before the surface darkens too far. Watch the colour so the outside does not burn.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, syrup, butter, sugar, cinnamon, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Allspicefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, syrup, butter, sugar, 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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