Name: Moravian Christmas Cakes
Ingredients: 1 pint molasses; ½ pound butter and lard mixed; 2 pounds flour; ½ pound sugar; ½ ounce cloves; ½ ounce cinnamon; ½ ounce ginger

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Moravian Christmas Cakes

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

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, butter and lard until well combined.
Gradually add the flour, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and ginger, mixing until a dough forms.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface to your desired thickness.

Shape and bake

Cut into shapes and place on a baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven until firm, about 10-15 minutes.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 sweetness, dark colour and a moist, chewy texture to the dough.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the dough together and lets it be rolled and cut.
Butter and lard: Adds fat for tenderness and a short texture as the cakes bake.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the oven.
Cloves: Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour.
Cinnamon: Contributes warm, sweet spice flavour and aroma.

Swap the ginger

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

Nutmegfits better
Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Gingerthe original

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