Name: Ginger Drop Cookies
Ingredients: 1 egg; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sour cream; ½ cup Crisco (or ¼ cup butter and ¼ cup lard); 2 teaspoons baking soda; about 4 cups flour; cinnamon to taste; ginger to taste

Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger 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 Drop Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

In a large bowl, mix the egg, sugar, molasses, sour cream, and Crisco (or butter and lard).
Add the baking soda, flour, cinnamon, and ginger, mixing until combined.

Bake

Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a buttered baking pan.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

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.

Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Egg: Binds the dough and adds richness and structure as it sets in the oven.
Molasses: Adds moisture, deep sweetness and color, and a rich flavor to the cookies.
Sour cream: Adds moisture and acidity that tenderizes the dough and reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to leaven the cookies and help them spread and brown.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Crisco (or butter and lard): Adds fat that gives tenderness and a soft texture to the cookies.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, molasses, cream, butter, flour, cinnamon. 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.