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Dessert

Colonial Ginger Bread

A moist ginger bread made with molasses, butter, sugar, and spices, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Colonial Ginger Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine molasses, butter, and sugar.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and pour over the mixture.

  3. Stir well and let cool.

  4. Add walnuts, raisins, ginger, cinnamon, flour, and beaten eggs. Mix until combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour into a shallow pan and bake until golden brown.

  2. Serve warm.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Walnut + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 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

New orleans molasses
Provides dark color, moisture, and the deep, sweet flavor typical of gingerbread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and hot water to produce gas that lightens the batter.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure that holds the bread together as it sets.
Eggs
Add structure and help bind the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in boiling water. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and mixed in promptly so it reacts evenly with the molasses. Uneven distribution leaves pockets that are bitter or soapy and an uneven rise.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, sugar, raisin, ginger, cinnamon, flour):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, sugar, raisin, ginger, cinnamon, flour. 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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