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Dessert

Scotch Gingerbread

A moist loaf of gingerbread flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, preserved ginger, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓

Scotch 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.

Prepare

  1. Sift together the cinnamon, flour, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.

  2. Add the raisins, preserved ginger, and chopped almonds.

Make the batter

  1. Heat the molasses and shortening until boiling, then stir into the dry ingredients.

  2. Add the beaten eggs and mix well.

Bake

  1. Bake in a loaf for 1 hour or in a sheet for 30 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 gingerbread together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness, and the dark color and flavor typical of gingerbread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking to give the gingerbread lift and a lighter texture.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps it moist.

The step that matters

Heat the molasses and shortening until boiling, then stir into the dry ingredients. Bringing the molasses and shortening to a boil before adding them to the dry ingredients helps the fat blend in evenly and the batter stay smooth. Stirring them in while still very hot also starts the leavening reaction promptly, so the batter should be mixed and baked without long delay.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, flour, nutmeg, raisin, almond, molasses, egg):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, flour, nutmeg, raisin, almond, molasses, egg. 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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