Skip to main content
Dessert

Gingerbread-nuts

A sweet biscuit made with flour, treacle, butter, sugar, candied peel, spices, and carbonate of ammonia.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,505 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Gingerbread-nuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, treacle, butter, sugar, candied peel, ginger, coriander, and caraway seeds until well combined.

  2. Stir in the carbonate of ammonia, using up to 4 ounces for a lighter texture.

Shape and bake

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

  2. Shape the mixture into small nuts and place them on a baking sheet.

  3. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

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 + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  2. Coriander + carawaytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together185 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ginger + carawaytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together288 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together once shaped and baked.
Treacle (or molasses)
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and color, and helps the nuts brown.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the texture and gives a richer, tender bite.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and promotes browning in the oven.
Carbonate of ammonia
Acts as a leavening agent that releases gas when heated, lightening the nuts.

The step that matters

Stirring in the carbonate of ammonia. This leavening agent breaks down into gas when heated, which lightens the nuts. It should be finely powdered and evenly mixed so it disperses well. Using too much leaves a sharp ammonia taste, so the stated amount matters.

Swap the coriander

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

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

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

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipes