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Dessert

American Gingerbread

A gingerbread cake made with butter, flour, brown sugar, ginger, eggs, rose water, and white wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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American Gingerbread

Why it works: Butter and white wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,083 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

American Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

Make and bake

  1. In a large bowl, mix melted butter, flour, brown sugar, pounded ginger, and beaten egg yolks and whites.

  2. Add rose water and white wine, and mix well.

  3. Spread the mixture over flat tin pans to a thickness of a penny.

  4. Bake until light brown, then cut into oblong pieces while warm.

  5. Place the pieces on end to cool until crisp.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Eggs
Beaten yolks and whites add structure and lift to the batter.
Flour
Provides the starch and gluten framework that sets the batter into a sheet.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the surface brown during baking.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, crisp bite as it cools.
Pounded ginger
Supplies the main spiced aroma that defines the gingerbread flavour.

The step that matters

Spread the mixture to a thickness of a penny. Spreading thinly keeps the batter even so it bakes through and turns crisp rather than cakey. Thick spots stay soft and may not set properly.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, egg, rose, white wine):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sugar, egg, rose, white wine. 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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