Name: Ginger Cookies
Ingredients: 1½ cups New Orleans molasses; 1 cup brown sugar; 1⅔ cups hot water; 2 teaspoons baking soda; ¼ teaspoon salt; nutmeg, to taste; cinnamon, to taste; cloves, to taste; ginger, to taste

Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the molasses, brown sugar, and hot water.
Dissolve the baking soda in a small amount of hot water and add it to the mixture.
Stir in the salt and season with nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger to taste.

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.

Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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).

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

Swap the ginger

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

Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Gingerthe original
Fennelfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.