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Dessert

Fruit Gingerbread

A spiced gingerbread dough with molasses, butter, and dried fruit baked into a cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Fruit Gingerbread

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 ↓

Fruit Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter in boiling water.

  2. Add the molasses and beaten egg, mixing well.

  3. Sift in the flour, baking soda, and spices.

  4. Fold in the floured fruit and candied peel.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered pan.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 40 to 50 minutes, or 25 to 30 minutes for individual portions.

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. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a tender crumb while keeping the gingerbread moist.
Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark color, and a moist, sticky texture.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure to the crumb as it sets.
Flour
Forms the main structure that holds the gingerbread together as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift the batter and lighten the crumb.
Currants, raisins, and candied peel
Add chewy pockets of fruit sweetness and concentrated flavor throughout the cake.

The step that matters

Folding in the floured fruit. Flouring the currants, raisins, and peel helps keep them suspended rather than sinking to the bottom. Folding gently preserves the air and leavening already in the batter so the gingerbread rises evenly.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, egg, flour, ginger, 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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