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Dessert

Soft Ginger Bread

A moist ginger bread loaf made with molasses, brown sugar, sour milk, butter, lard, eggs, spices, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Soft Ginger Bread

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Soft Ginger Bread

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

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, brown sugar, sour milk, and combined butter and lard.

  2. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined.

  3. Add the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and baking soda, mixing well.

  4. Gradually stir in the flour until the batter is smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into greased bread pans.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and deep sweetness to the crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Flour
Forms the gluten and starch network that gives the bread its structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Butter and lard
Add fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Adds acidity that activates the baking soda and softens the texture.

The step that matters

Checking for doneness. Ginger bread with high molasses content browns quickly on the outside while the centre stays wet. Testing the centre with a toothpick, rather than relying on colour, confirms the crumb has set before it is removed from the oven.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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