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Dessert

Fruit Gingerbread

A gingerbread cake with raisins and lemon peel, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Fruit Gingerbread

Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Fruit Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine the beaten eggs, brown sugar, molasses, butter, and sour cream.

  2. Stir in the raisins and lemon or citron peel.

  3. Add the ginger and baking soda dissolved in a little water.

  4. Gradually mix in enough flour to form a stiff batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a large dripping pan.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30-40 minutes.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and deep sweetness to the gingerbread.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and a slight acidity that keeps the crumb soft.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to lift the batter as it bakes.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter into a cake-like crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda before adding it. Baking soda needs to be evenly dispersed in the batter to react with the acidic molasses and sour cream. Dissolving it in a little water first helps it spread through the batter, so the cake rises evenly instead of in patches.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, molasses, butter, cream, raisin, ginger):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, molasses, butter, cream, raisin, ginger. 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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