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Dessert

Lafayette Gingerbread

A spiced gingerbread cake flavored with orange rind, orange juice, molasses, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Lafayette Gingerbread

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 ↓

Lafayette Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Cut the butter into small pieces and cream it with the brown sugar in a deep pan using a spatula.

  2. Mix in the molasses and warm milk.

  3. Add the ginger, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, and brandy.

  4. Sift in the flour and mix well.

  5. Beat the eggs until very light, then mix them alternately with the flour mixture.

  6. Stir in the grated orange rind and juice.

  7. Dissolve the baking soda in lukewarm water and add it to the mixture.

  8. Dissolve the tartaric acid in lukewarm water and add it to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Butter a large round or oblong pan and pour in the mixture.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until thoroughly done, watching to prevent burning.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air and give the cake a tender, rich crumb.
Eggs
Add structure and lift, setting the crumb as the cake bakes.
Fine flour
Forms the main structure that sets the cake as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Tartaric acid
Reacts with the baking soda to produce gas for rising and adds a slight tang.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep color to the crumb.

The step that matters

Watching the bake. Gingerbread has a lot of sugar and molasses, which brown quickly and can burn before the centre sets. Checking for doneness and watching the colour keeps the crumb moist and the crust from scorching.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, molasses, milk, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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