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Dessert

Pepper Cakes

A sweet, spiced cake made with butter, lard, molasses, spices, eggs, and flour, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Pepper Cakes

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 dough

  1. Melt the butter and lard in the molasses over low heat.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the spices and egg.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in a little sour cream and add it to the mixture.

  4. Gradually stir in enough rye or wheat flour to form a stiff dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough thin and cut it into cookie shapes.

  2. If desired, reserve part of the dough and mix in 1 pound of blanched almonds and ½ pound of finely chopped citron.

  3. Roll this mixture out to about 1 inch thick, cut into 1-inch squares, and place them close together in baking tins.

  4. Glaze all cookies with egg white and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the main sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and gives the cakes their characteristic flavor.
Butter and lard
Add fat that makes the dough tender and rich while melting it into the molasses.
Eggs
Bind the mixture together and add structure as the dough sets.
Rye or wheat flour
Builds the stiff dough structure that holds the shapes during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidity of the sour cream and molasses to produce gas that lifts the dough.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in sour cream before adding it. Baking soda needs to be spread evenly through the dough to react with the acids present. Dissolving it first in a little sour cream helps prevent pockets of soda that would leave bitter spots or uneven rising.

Swap the anise

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ginger, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, egg):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Anisethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ginger, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, egg. 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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