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Dessert

Ginger Gems

A sweet ginger cake made with molasses, brown sugar, and spices, baked in a gem-shaped pan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon 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 Gems

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream together the butter, molasses, and brown sugar.

  2. Add the eggs and mix well.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the sour milk. Mix until smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into well-greased gem pans.

  2. Bake immediately for about 15-20 minutes or 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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the gems together as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas, lifting the batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness with a slight acidity.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor to the batter.
Sour milk
Adds acidity that activates the baking soda and contributes moisture.

The step that matters

Bake immediately after mixing. Baking soda starts releasing gas as soon as it meets the acidic sour milk and molasses. Waiting lets that lift escape, so the gems may bake up flat and dense.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, sugar, egg, flour, milk, cinnamon. 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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