Skip to main content
Dessert

Hot Water Ginger Bread

A gingerbread made with hot water, sorghum molasses, and spices, baked until done.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Hot Water Ginger Bread

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. Cream together the sugar and shortening.

  2. Add the sorghum molasses and re-cream the mixture.

  3. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, cloves, and ginger.

  4. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the hot water.

  5. Beat the mixture thoroughly.

  6. Finally, add the well whipped eggs.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°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.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sorghum + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together45 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  5. Sorghum + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together99 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

Flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the gingerbread its structure.
Eggs
Add structure and richness as they set during baking, and help lift the batter.
Sorghum molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and the deep brown color and flavor typical of gingerbread.
Shortening
Adds fat that carries flavor and creates a tender crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, helping the cake rise and darken.
Baking powder
Supplies additional leavening so the batter rises during baking.

The step that matters

Adding the well whipped eggs last. Eggs should be whipped well and folded in at the end so the batter keeps its trapped air, which helps the gingerbread rise and stay light rather than dense.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, sorghum, molasses, flour, cinnamon, clove, egg. 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.

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipes