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Dessert

Ginger-nuts

A sweet ginger cookie made with butter, sugar, molasses, ginger, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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-nuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, stir together the butter and sugar until well combined.

  3. Add the ginger, ground cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and molasses.

  4. Gradually mix in enough flour to form a dough.

  5. Knead the dough well and shape it into small cakes.

Bake

  1. Place the cakes on baking tins.

  2. Before baking, wash the tops with a mixture of molasses and water.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven 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.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat that gives the cakes a tender, rich crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the oven.
Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness and a deep colour to the dough.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets in baking.

The step that matters

Bake in the preheated oven until done. Baking time is not stated in the record, so the cakes can over-brown or dry out if left too long. Check for a firm top and an even, golden colour before removing them from the oven.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, clove, allspice, cinnamon, 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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