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Dessert

Fruit Gingerbread

A sweet gingerbread cake with molasses, butter, brown sugar, and dried fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Fruit Gingerbread

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Fruit Gingerbread

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 batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the molasses, butter, and brown sugar.

  3. Add the sour milk or buttermilk and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger, bicarbonate of soda, and salt.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until combined.

  6. Fold in the currants and raisins.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into shallow pans and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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 deep sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and rich flavour.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the crumb as the batter bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help give it structure as it sets.
Bicarbonate of soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to lift and lighten the batter.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Adds acidity that activates the bicarbonate and tenderises the crumb.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and stirring only until combined keeps the batter smooth and prevents lumps. Overmixing develops gluten, which can make the gingerbread tough and dense.

Swap the allspice

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

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

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

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