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Dessert

Old-fashioned Ginger Cakes

A sweet ginger cake made with molasses, baking soda, ginger, lard, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Old-fashioned Ginger Cakes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Boil the molasses in a pot.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda, ginger, and lard in the hot water.

  3. Mix the molasses with the dissolved mixture and enough flour to form a thick dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough thin and cut it into squares.

  2. Brush the tops with egg white and bake at 400°F (200°C) until done.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides sweetness, moisture, and a dark, rich flavor to the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses' acidity to lighten the cakes as they bake.
Ground ginger
Supplies the warm, spicy aroma that defines the cakes.
Lard
Adds fat for tenderness and a short, crumbly texture.
Flour
Gives the dough structure so it can be rolled and cut.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough thin. Thin dough bakes through evenly and dries into a crisp, cake-like texture. Thick pieces stay soft and dense in the centre while the edges over-brown.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, 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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