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 ↓
Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, mix molasses and baking soda until well combined.
Add sugar, shortening, sour milk, and eggs to the mixture and stir until smooth.
In another bowl, combine ginger, cinnamon, and flour.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until fully incorporated.
Bake
Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.
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.
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 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
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, deep sweetness and flavor, and helps the cookies stay soft.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the dough.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides the main structure that sets as the cookies bake.
- Shortening
- Adds fat for tenderness and a soft, rich texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps the edges brown during baking.
The step that matters
Mixing the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Adding the flour gradually and stirring only until combined keeps the dough from overdeveloping. Overmixing builds gluten, which can make the cookies tough rather than tender.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, milk, egg, cinnamon, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, milk, egg, cinnamon, flour. 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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