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Dessert

Ginger Nuts

A sweet, spiced cookie made with molasses, sugar, ginger, butter, sour milk, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ginger Nuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Combine molasses, sugar, ginger, butter, sour milk, and baking soda in a bowl.

  2. Mix until just stiff enough to roll out thinly.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough.

  2. Cut the rolled dough into small cakes.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until done.

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

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

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture to the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the sour milk to release gas, helping the cakes rise.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderises the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat, which gives richness and a tender texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the cakes brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Mix until just stiff enough to roll out thinly. Baking soda starts reacting with the sour milk as soon as they meet, so the gas that lifts the cakes is released quickly. Overworking the dough or leaving it to stand can waste that lift, so roll and cut it promptly once it is stiff enough.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Clovefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, 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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