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Dessert

Gingerbread, White

A baked gingerbread cake made with flour, butter, sugar, lemon rind, ginger, nutmeg, ammonia, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Gingerbread, White

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

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

  2. Rub the butter into the flour.

  3. Add the sugar, minced lemon rind, ginger, and nutmeg. Mix well.

  4. Warm the milk slightly and stir in the ammonia until it is in fine powder.

  5. Work the mixture into a smooth paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the paste with a rolling pin and cut into cakes.

  2. Place the cakes on greased baking tins and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cakes together as they bake.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps it brown during baking.
Carbonate of ammonia
Acts as a leavening agent, releasing gas that lightens the cakes as they bake.
Milk
Adds moisture that binds the dough into a smooth paste.

The step that matters

Work the ammonia into the milk until fine. Carbonate of ammonia must be fully dissolved and finely powdered so it disperses evenly; lumps leave pockets of uneven rising and dense or patchy spots in the cakes.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, milk. 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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