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Sour Milk Ginger Bread

A ginger bread made with sour milk and molasses, baked with baking soda and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Sour Milk Ginger Bread

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.

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift the dry ingredients (baking soda, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and salt) two or three times.

  2. In a bowl, mix the molasses and sour milk thoroughly.

  3. Gradually add the molasses mixture to the flour, beating well.

  4. Add the melted butter and the egg (if using), and mix until combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a well-greased pan.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

  3. If short on molasses, add 1 tablespoon of sugar.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  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
Provides sweetness, dark color, and a rich, moist texture to the gingerbread.
Thick sour milk
Reacts with baking soda to produce gas for rising and adds tenderness and mild acidity.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to leaven the batter and aid browning.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and moisture in the crumb.

The step that matters

Gradually add the molasses mixture to the flour, beating well. Adding the wet mixture slowly and beating it well distributes the liquid evenly and develops the gluten needed for a structured crumb, while avoiding lumps in the batter.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, clove, cinnamon, egg, butter, 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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