Name: Gingerbread, a Plain Sort
Ingredients: 3 pounds of flour; ¼ pound of brown sugar; ½ ounce of ginger; 1¼ pounds of warm treacle

Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓

Gingerbread, a Plain Sort

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

3 pounds of flour
¼ pound of brown sugar
½ ounce of ginger
1¼ pounds of warm treacle

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Mix the dough

Mix the flour, brown sugar, and ginger in a bowl.
Add the warm treacle to the dry ingredients.
Stir until a paste forms.
Roll out the dough to your desired thickness.

Shape and bake

Cut into shapes and place on a baking sheet.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

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.

Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the dough together once baked.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during baking.
Ginger: Supplies the spicy aroma that defines the gingerbread flavour.
Treacle: Adds moisture, sweetness, and a deep colour, binding the dry ingredients into a paste.