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Ginger Cookies

A molasses-based ginger cookie with cinnamon, baked at 350°F and frosted with boiled sugar and egg white.

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

Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Cookies

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.

Make the dough

  1. Boil the molasses and butter together in a pot.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the flour, ginger, and cinnamon.

  3. Add the eggs, saving the white of one for frosting.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in vinegar and mix it in.

  5. Add enough flour to make a thick dough that can be rolled out.

Bake and frost

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into shapes.

  2. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until lightly browned, but do not overbake.

  3. For frosting, boil the sugar with the egg white, then frost the cookies before returning them to the oven for a moment.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and rich flavor of the cookies.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the cookies a tender texture and rich flavor.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and lets it be rolled out.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the vinegar to release gas that helps the cookies rise and spread lightly.
Vinegar
Provides the acid needed to activate the baking soda, producing gas for lift.

The step that matters

Do not overbake. Molasses and sugar brown and harden quickly in the oven. Once the moisture cooks off, the cookies turn dry, hard, and bitter, so they should be removed while still lightly browned.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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