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Dessert

Ginger Cookies

A sweet cookie made with sugar, molasses, shortening, spices, vanilla, flour, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger Cookies

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix together sugar, molasses, and shortening.

  2. Add baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and vanilla to the mixture.

  3. Pour boiling water over the baking soda and stir well.

  4. Thicken the mixture with flour until it reaches a workable consistency.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

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

  4. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and a dark color to the cookies.
Shortening
Provides fat that tenderizes the dough and carries the spices.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and boiling water to lift and lighten the dough.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown during baking.
Flour
Gives structure and firms the dough so it can be rolled and cut.

The step that matters

Pouring boiling water over the baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid and heat to release gas. Adding boiling water to it right before mixing helps the dough rise evenly, so stirring it in well matters for an even texture.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, flour. 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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