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Dessert

Hot Ginger Bread

A sweet ginger bread loaf made with eggs, sugar, lard, molasses, flour, boiling water, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Hot Ginger Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until well combined.

  3. Add the lard and baking molasses, mixing until smooth.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and allspice.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the boiling water, and mix until smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the gluten-based structure that holds the bread's crumb together.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lift the batter and help it rise.
Baking molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and deep sweetness with a slight acidity.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the crumb tender and moist.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown during baking.

The step that matters

Alternating the boiling water with the dry ingredients. Adding the dry ingredients and boiling water in turns keeps the batter smooth and evenly hydrated. Mixing only until smooth avoids overworking the flour, which would toughen the crumb.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, molasses, flour, cinnamon, allspice. 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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