Name: Cheese Gingerbread
Ingredients: 1 cup soft cheese; 1 cup molasses; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 teaspoon ground ginger; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ cup butter (or other fat)

Why it works: Cheese and cinnamon work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and 261 recipes mention both. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the dough

In a bowl, mix the soft cheese and molasses until smooth.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the cheese mixture, mixing well.
Incorporate the butter until the dough is smooth.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased baking pan.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Cheese + cinnamontop 20% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together261 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cheese + buttertop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together7,955 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Molasses + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together4,928 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + gingertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Soft cheese: Provides moisture and a tender, rich crumb in the batter.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture and the characteristic dark color and flavor of gingerbread.
All-purpose flour: Forms the main structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lifts and lightens the batter.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the finished cake.

“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.