Name: Ginger Snaps
Ingredients: 14 lbs flour; 10 lbs cane sugar syrup; 5 lbs moist cane sugar; 2 lbs lard; 8 oz ginger; 1 oz tartaric acid; 1 oz baking soda; 1 pint water (approximately)

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

Directions

Sift the baking soda and tartaric acid through the flour.
Make a well in the flour and cream the lard.
Mix in the other ingredients, adding water as needed for consistency.
Incorporate the flour to form a workable dough.
If using butter instead of lard, the flavor will improve.
Roll out the dough and cut into shapes with a small spice cutter.
To moisten the tops, use a damp cloth instead of a brush.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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).
Syrup + gingertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together950 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,540 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).