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Dessert

Ginger Cookies

A sweet, spiced cookie made with molasses, sugar, butter, vinegar, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, eggs, salt, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 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. Combine molasses, sugar, butter, and vinegar in a pot and bring to a boil.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Once cooled, stir in ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, beaten eggs, and salt.

  4. Gradually add flour until the dough is thin enough to roll out.

Bake

  1. Dust the rolled dough with granulated sugar.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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.

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 + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 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 deep sweetness, moisture, and a dark color to the dough.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the cookies.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and vinegar to help the cookies rise and brown.
Flour
Provides the structure that lets the dough be rolled thin.

The step that matters

Cooling before adding the eggs and leavener. Adding beaten eggs and baking soda to a very hot syrup can cook the eggs and cause the baking soda to react too quickly, weakening the rise and texture. Letting the mixture cool first keeps the dough smoother and more controlled.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, vinegar, cinnamon, egg, 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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