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Ginger Cookies

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Ginger Cookies

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ginger Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot coffee.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Mix in the ground ginger, molasses, eggs, cinnamon, cloves, and dissolved baking soda.

  4. Add enough flour to make a stiff batter.

  5. Cut the raisins in half and place them on top of each cookie.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, molasses, egg, cinnamon, clove, coffee):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, molasses, egg, cinnamon, clove, coffee. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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