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Dessert

American Gingerbread

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

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

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.

Make the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, flour, brown sugar, pounded ginger, and rose water.

  3. Beat the egg yolks and whites separately, then add to the mixture.

  4. Beat the mixture for one hour until well combined.

Bake and finish

  1. Spread the batter onto flat tin pans, about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Bake until light brown.

  3. While warm, cut into oblong pieces and place them on end to cool.

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
Egg yolks and whites add structure and lift to the batter as it bakes.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the gingerbread together as it sets.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the top brown during baking.
Pounded ginger
Supplies the main spiced aroma that defines the gingerbread.

The step that matters

Bake until light brown. Baking only until light brown keeps the pieces moist and tender; overbaking dries the batter and makes the cut pieces brittle once cooled.

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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