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Dessert

Gingerbread

A gingerbread cake made with golden syrup, butter, coarse brown sugar, flour, ginger, allspice, bicarbonate of soda, water, eggs, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Gingerbread

Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gingerbread

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. In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, ginger, and allspice.

  2. Warm the butter and mix it with the golden syrup.

  3. Stir the butter and syrup mixture into the dry ingredients.

  4. Warm the water, dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in it, and add to the mixture.

  5. Incorporate the whisked eggs and a little milk to form a smooth dough.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased tin.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or longer if thick.

  3. Brush the top with a beaten egg yolk mixed with milk before finishing baking.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 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

Golden syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the gingerbread stay soft and sticky.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the gingerbread together as it bakes.
Bicarbonate of soda
Reacts with the acidic syrup to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Eggs
Add structure and binding so the dough holds together when baked.
Ground ginger
Provides the main spice flavour that defines the gingerbread.

The step that matters

Dissolving the bicarbonate of soda in the warm water. Bicarbonate needs to be fully dissolved and mixed evenly into the batter so it reacts with the acidic syrup and rises uniformly rather than leaving pockets or dense patches.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, butter, sugar, flour, ginger, egg, milk. 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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