Name: Ginger Cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup butter; 1 egg; 1 tablespoon vinegar; 1 tablespoon ginger; 1 teaspoon baking soda; boiling water

Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, mix together sugar, molasses, butter, egg, vinegar, and ginger.
Dissolve baking soda in a small amount of boiling water and add to the mixture.
Stir until combined to form a soft cookie dough.

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.

Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together14,054 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits about as well
Allspicefits about as well
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, egg, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.