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Dessert

Sponge Gingerbread, Without Eggs

A moist gingerbread cake made with molasses, sour milk, sugar, baking soda, butter, flour, and ginger spices, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Sponge Gingerbread, Without Eggs

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.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix molasses, sour milk, and sugar.

  3. Dissolve baking soda in the milk and add to the mixture.

  4. Melt the butter and stir it in.

  5. Gradually add flour until well combined.

  6. Add ginger and spice to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into shallow tins.

  2. Bake until golden and eat 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 sweetness, moisture and the characteristic gingerbread flavour.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to lift the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that makes the cake rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavour.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and mixed into the acidic sour milk and molasses so it reacts evenly. Uneven distribution leaves pockets of bitter soda and uneven rise.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Jalapenofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, sugar, butter, 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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