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Dessert

Superfine Ginger Bread

A moist gingerbread loaf made with molasses, butter, sour cream, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Superfine Ginger Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together molasses, sugar, butter, and sour cream until smooth.

  2. Add baking soda, beaten eggs, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. Mix well.

  3. Gradually stir in the flour until fully combined.

  4. Fold in the floured raisins.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.

  2. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick 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. Clove + cinnamontop 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to lift the batter as it bakes.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Sour cream
Adds acidity and moisture, reacting with the baking soda to help the crumb rise.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid, such as the sour cream and molasses here, to react and leaven the batter. Mixing it in with the other ingredients and keeping the batter moving helps the gas bubbles spread evenly before the batter sets in the oven.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, butter, cream, egg, clove, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, cream, egg, clove, cinnamon. 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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