Name: Parliament Gingerbread
Ingredients: 1 pound all-purpose flour; 1 pound jaggery or treacle; 2 ounces butter; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ¼ pound ground ginger; 1 pint water; 2 pounds all-purpose flour (for the second part); 6 ounces candied orange peel

Why it works: Ginger and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,833 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Parliament Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

Melt the jaggery or treacle over low heat with a little water until thick.
Mix 1 pound of flour and baking soda in a bowl.
Rub in the butter until well combined.
Pour in the melted jaggery or treacle and mix well.
Knead the dough until smooth, then cover and let it rest overnight.
Roll out the dough thinly and cut into flat cakes using a tin with notched edges.

Make the ginger and peel mixture

For the second part, boil the ground ginger in 1 pint of water for 5 minutes, then let it cool.
Pound the candied orange peel and strain it through a fine sieve.
On a clean surface, make a well in 2 pounds of flour and add the ginger mixture and orange peel.
Mix to form a paste, roll it out, and prick the cakes before 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.

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.

Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,833 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + orangetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,821 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + orangetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,301 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Flour and butter 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

Jaggery or treacle: Provides sweetness and moisture, and gives the cakes their dark color and rich flavor.
All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the dough as the main body of the cakes.
Butter: Adds fat, which tenderizes the dough and gives a richer texture.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses-style sweetener to lighten the cakes.
Ground ginger: Adds warm, spicy aroma and flavor to the cakes.
Candied orange peel: Adds bright citrus flavor and chewy bits of sweetness.