Name: Ginger Bread
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; ½ cup sugar; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon cloves; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 cup boiling water; ½ cup melted butter; 2½ cups flour; 1 egg

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 Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water and stir well.
In a large bowl, combine molasses, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves.
Add the dissolved baking soda mixture and melted butter to the bowl.
Gradually mix in the flour until well combined.
Beat the egg and stir it into the mixture.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,928 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 clove

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

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Allspicefits about as well
Clovethe original

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