Name: Soft Gingerbread
Ingredients: 1 cup butter; 1 cup milk; 1 cup brown sugar; 1 cup molasses; 5 cups sifted flour; 1 teaspoon mixed cinnamon and mace; 1 heaping tablespoon ground ginger; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 4 eggs

Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger 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 ↓

Soft Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

Warm the molasses, butter, brown sugar, and spices together until slightly melted.
Stir the mixture to a yellow-brown cream.
Add the milk, beaten eggs, and flour; mix well.

Bake

Pour the batter into two large, shallow pans.
Bake until a toothpick inserted 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.

Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the soft crumb together as the batter sets.
Eggs: Add structure and help bind the batter as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavor.
Molasses: Adds moisture, dark color, and the characteristic gingerbread flavor.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown.
Baking soda: Reacts to lift the batter and give the cake a lighter crumb.

Swap the mace

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

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Clovefits better
Macethe original

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