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Dessert

French Candy

A hard candy made from sugar, water, cream of tartar, and peppermint essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

French Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine the granulated sugar and just enough cold water to moisten it in a saucepan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until it drops heavily from a spoon.

  3. Remove from heat and test the consistency.

  4. If sticky, cook a little longer.

  5. If grainy, add more water and boil again.

Beat and drop

  1. Pour the mixture into a bowl.

  2. Beat until white and creamy.

  3. Mix in the cream of tartar when it begins to boil.

  4. Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes.

  5. Add the peppermint essence and beat until white.

  6. Drop spoonfuls onto a buttered dish to cool.

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

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

  2. Cream + pepperminttop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together632 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + pepperminttop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,082 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Forms the candy's body and sweetness, setting firm as the syrup cools.
Cream of tartar
Its acidity helps keep the sugar from crystallising into a grainy texture.
Peppermint essence
Adds the characteristic peppermint aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to the right point. The sugar concentration determines how firm the candy sets. Undercooked syrup stays sticky, while overcooked or agitated syrup can turn grainy as sugar recrystallises.

Swap the peppermint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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