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Dessert

Ginger Cookies

A sweet cookie made with sugar, molasses, butter, eggs, milk, ginger, cinnamon, almond extract, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger Cookies

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Cream together the sugar, butter, eggs, ginger, and cinnamon.

  2. Add the molasses and mix well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the milk and add it to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the almond extract and enough flour to form a dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut with a round cutter.

  2. Place the cookies on a baking sheet, leaving space between them.

  3. Bake in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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.

  1. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. 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

Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep, sweet flavor typical of ginger cookies.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and milk to produce gas, helping the cookies rise and soften.
Butter
Provides fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the dough.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and moisture.
Flour
Forms the gluten structure that gives the dough its body once mixed.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps with browning and a tender texture.

The step that matters

Bake in a cool oven. Baking at a low, steady 300°F lets the cookies spread and dry evenly without over-browning the edges. Removing them once they are done keeps them from hardening.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, egg, milk, cinnamon, almond. 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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