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Dessert

Boston Gingerbread

Boston Gingerbread is a soft dough cookie made with flour, butter, molasses, eggs, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Boston Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

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

  2. Rub the butter into the flour in a bowl.

  3. Add the molasses, eggs, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and enough milk to form a soft dough.

  4. Roll out the dough into sheets and cut them into desired shapes.

Shape and bake

  1. Butter the baking tins and place the cut sheets inside.

  2. Mix molasses with a little water and wash the tops of the cakes with the molasses mixture before baking.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until done, being careful not to scorch.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the dough and cakes together.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating the flour and softening the crumb.
Molasses
Adds dark color, sweetness, and moisture, and helps the cakes brown.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to help the cakes rise and lighten.
Ginger
Provides the main spicy aroma and flavor of the gingerbread.

The step that matters

Bake until done without scorching. Molasses contains sugars that brown quickly, so the tops can burn before the centre sets. Watching the colour and oven closely prevents bitter, scorched edges.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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