Name: Molasses Cookies
Ingredients: 1½ cups light brown sugar; ⅓ cup molasses; 1 cup lard and butter; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 teaspoon ground ginger; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; ¼ teaspoon salt; 5 cups all-purpose flour

Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Molasses Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, combine the brown sugar, molasses, and lard and butter. Heat until it boils.
Remove from heat and add baking soda, ginger, eggs, cinnamon, and salt.
Stir in 4 cups of flour until well combined.
Dust a clean surface with the remaining 1 cup of flour.
Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

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.

Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,928 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Swap the ginger

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

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Allspicefits about as well
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, egg, cinnamon, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.