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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A sweet biscuit made with molasses, butter, sugar, eggs, baking soda, water, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the molasses base

  1. Boil the molasses, then let it cool.

  2. Mix in the baking soda.

Make the butter mixture

  1. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the eggs and mix well.

Make the dough

  1. Combine the molasses mixture with the butter mixture.

  2. Stir in the water and enough flour to form a dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into shapes.

  2. Bake in a quick oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Molasses
Adds dark color, deep flavor and moisture to the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lighten the dough and help it spread and rise.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and helps the cookies crisp at the edges.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps create crispness and golden browning in the oven.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and moisture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets it in the oven.

The step that matters

Mix in the baking soda. Baking soda reacts with the acidic molasses, so it should be mixed in fully and the dough baked promptly to get good rise and spread without uneven pockets.

“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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