Name: Ginger Cookies
Ingredients: 1 egg, well beaten; ½ cup brown sugar; 2 teaspoons ginger; ½ cup butter, softened; 1 cup black strap molasses; 2½ tablespoons vinegar, boiled; 1 teaspoon baking soda; flour, enough to roll out

Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

In a bowl, combine the beaten egg and brown sugar.
Add ginger, softened butter, black strap molasses, and boiled vinegar; mix well.
Stir in baking soda and enough flour to form a dough.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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.

Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ginger + molassestop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Binds the dough and adds richness and structure to the cookies.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and flavor in the dough.
Black strap molasses: Provides dark color, moisture, and a deep sweet flavor.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic vinegar and molasses to lift and lighten the cookies.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness, moisture, and helps the cookies brown.

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Allspicefits about as well
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, molasses, vinegar, flour. 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.