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Dessert

Ginger Nuts

A sweet, spiced cookie made with syrup, sugar, butter, flour, ginger, allspice, coriander, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix the syrup, moist sugar, and butter until well combined.

  3. Add the flour, ground ginger, allspice, coriander seed, and cayenne pepper. Mix until a dough forms.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough into small balls and pinch them slightly.

  2. Place the balls on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes or 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.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Coriander + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies stay chewy and dark.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and contributes to browning and a soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, tenderizing the dough and carrying flavor.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets as it bakes.
Ground ginger
Provides the warm, spicy aroma that defines the cookie.

The step that matters

Baking until golden. Sugar-rich doughs brown quickly, so the cookies can go from golden to burnt in a short time. Checking near the low end of the baking time helps keep them soft in the centre.

Swap the coriander

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

  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, pepper. 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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