Skip to main content
Dessert

Hot Water Gingerbread

A gingerbread cake made with butter, lard, molasses, ginger, and hot water, baked at 300°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Hot Water Gingerbread

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 batter

  1. Cream together the butter and lard.

  2. Add the brown sugar, beaten eggs, and molasses; mix well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, salt, flour, and ginger; sift together.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the boiling water.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased pan.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 25 to 30 minutes.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + gingertop 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the gingerbread together as it sets.
Butter and lard
Add fat that tenderises the crumb and gives a rich mouthfeel.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and deep sweetness to the crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lighten the crumb and aid browning.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crust brown.

The step that matters

Alternating the dry ingredients with the boiling water. Adding the flour in portions alongside the hot water keeps the batter smooth and evenly hydrated, so lumps do not form and the crumb bakes evenly.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipes