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Dessert

Ginger Bread

A spiced sweet loaf made with syrup, treacle, lard, sugar, water, flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, eggs, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ginger Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. In a pan, heat the syrup, treacle, lard, sugar, and water.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda.

  3. Pour the heated mixture into the center of the flour mixture and stir vigorously.

  4. Add the eggs and stir until bubbles form.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a well‑greased flat tin, smooth the top, and brush with a beaten egg.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until firm to the touch.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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 sets the batter into a firm, cake-like crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic syrup and treacle to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Eggs
Add structure and binding, and help the batter set as it bakes.
Treacle
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep molasses-like sweetness and flavor.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, keeping the crumb soft and tender.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a moist, rich texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the hot liquid into the flour. Pouring the heated mixture into the center and stirring vigorously blends it evenly without lumps. Adding the eggs after the mixture cools slightly helps avoid scrambling and keeps the batter smooth before baking.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, sugar, flour, ginger, cinnamon, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar, flour, ginger, cinnamon, egg. 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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