Skip to main content
Dessert

Gingerbread, White

A light, sweet gingerbread cake made with flour, butter, sugar, lemon zest, ginger, nutmeg, ammonia, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Gingerbread, White

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 dough

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

  2. Rub the butter into the flour until well combined.

  3. Add the sugar, lemon zest, ginger, and nutmeg; mix well.

  4. Warm the milk slightly, then stir in the ammonia until dissolved.

  5. Combine the milk mixture with the dry ingredients to form a smooth paste.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin and cut into cakes.

  2. Place the cakes on greased baking tins and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the cakes once combined with the liquid.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Caster sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown during baking.
Carbonate of ammonia
Acts as a leavening agent, releasing gas to help the cakes rise and lighten.

The step that matters

Dissolving the carbonate of ammonia in the warm milk. The leavening agent must be fully dissolved before mixing so it spreads evenly through the dough. Undissolved pockets can cause uneven rising and spots of bitterness or crumbling in the finished cakes.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes