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Dessert

Plain Gingerbread

A simple gingerbread cake made with molasses, sour milk, lard, flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt, egg, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Plain Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Mix molasses and lard or drippings in a large bowl.

  2. Add ginger, cinnamon, salt, and the egg, then mix well.

  3. Stir in sour milk.

  4. Sift baking soda into the flour.

  5. Gradually add the flour to the mixture.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a sheet pan about 1 inch thick.

  2. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes or until a broom straw 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Molasses
Provides dark color, moisture, and the characteristic sweet, deep flavor of the gingerbread.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure to the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to release gas, lifting the cake so it rises.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.
Lard or drippings
Adds fat for tenderness and a moist, short crumb.

The step that matters

Sifting the baking soda into the flour. Baking soda must be evenly distributed through the flour, or it forms pockets that cause bitter spots and uneven rising. Sifting also breaks up lumps so it reacts evenly with the acidic sour milk and molasses.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, flour, cinnamon, 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.

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