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Ginger Nuts

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Nuts

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine syrup, moist sugar, and butter until well mixed.

  2. Add flour, ground ginger, allspice, coriander seed, sal volatile, and cayenne. Mix until combined.

  3. Add enough additional flour to form a dough that can be rolled out.

  4. Roll the dough into small balls or cut with a glass.

  5. Pinch each ball to shape and place on a baking sheet.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Allspice + coriandertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, sugar, butter, flour, ginger, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, sugar, butter, flour, ginger, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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