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Dessert

New Ginger Bread

A quick gingerbread made with lard, sweet milk, sugar, ginger, cinnamon, molasses, and flour, baked and frosted with milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon 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 ↓

New Ginger Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift the flour and measure 2 cups.

  2. Add the baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt to the flour and sift twice.

  3. Cream the lard.

  4. Gradually add the sugar and the well-beaten egg, beating thoroughly.

  5. Mix the molasses and milk.

  6. Add this mixture alternately with the flour.

  7. Spread the batter in a thin sheet.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Once cooled, cut into fancy shapes.

  3. Frost with milk frosting.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the gingerbread together as it bakes.
Lard
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich texture.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness to the gingerbread.
Egg
Binds the batter and helps give it structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift the batter and help it rise.

The step that matters

Spread the batter in a thin sheet. A thin layer bakes evenly and dries out enough to cut into clean shapes. A thick batter may stay gummy in the center and burn at the edges.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar, egg, cinnamon, 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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