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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A sweet cookie made with sugar, lard, molasses, flour, ginger, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

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.

Make the dough

  1. Cream the sugar, lard, and molasses together.

  2. Add the allspice and ginger, and rub in well.

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

  4. Gradually add the flour, mixing until fully incorporated.

Shape and bake

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

  2. Wash the tops with water before baking.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°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.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep colour and flavour to the snaps.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderises the dough and gives a crisp, short bite.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the snaps brown and crisp as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to lighten the dough and help it spread and rise.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour, mixing until fully incorporated. Once the flour is in, overmixing develops gluten, which makes the dough tough and the snaps hard rather than crisp. Stop mixing as soon as the flour is evenly combined.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, molasses. 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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