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Dessert

Nurnberber Lebkuchen

A German gingerbread cookie made with flour, sugar, almonds, candied peel, spices, eggs, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Nurnberber Lebkuchen

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Beat the eggs well and stir them with the sugar, spices, and peels for 15 minutes.

  2. Gradually add the flour and mix until well combined.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in a little milk and stir it in.

  4. Finally, fold in the almonds.

Bake and serve

  1. Cut wafer paper into 4-inch by 2-inch pieces and spread a thin layer of the mixture on top.

  2. Place them on baking sheets and bake in a slow oven (300°F / 150°C) until pale in color.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs give the batter structure and lift, binding the dough together.
Fine flour
Flour provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Sifted sugar
Sugar adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown and develop a crisp surface.
Blanched and split almonds
Almonds add texture and richness, staying crisp and chewy within the dough.
Baking soda
Baking soda reacts to lift the dough and lighten its texture as it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven until pale. A slow oven dries and sets the thin layer gently, so the cookies stay pale and tender rather than browning or hardening too quickly.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, almond, egg, cinnamon, clove, 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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