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Dessert

Ginger Nuts

A sweet cookie made with molasses, butter, sugar, ginger, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Ginger Nuts

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, butter, and sugar until well combined.

  2. Add the baking soda, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, and mix thoroughly.

  3. Gradually add flour until the dough is firm enough to roll out.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness to the dough.
Butter
Provides fat that tenderizes the cookies and carries the spice flavors.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift the cookies and encourage browning.
Flour
Provides the structure that lets the dough be rolled out and hold its cut shapes.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the dough is firm enough to roll out. Too little flour leaves the dough sticky and spreading, while too much makes cookies dry and tough. Adding it gradually lets you stop once the dough is firm enough to roll.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, sugar, nutmeg, 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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