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Peppermint Liqueur

A peppermint liqueur made by infusing peppermint, sage, cinnamon, orris root, ginger, and alcohol with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger 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 ↓

Peppermint Liqueur

Ingredients

Directions

Make the infusion

  1. Combine peppermint, sage, cinnamon, orris root, and ginger in a large container.

  2. Add the 80% alcohol and mix well.

Sweeten and rest

  1. Gradually stir in the white sugar until fully dissolved.

  2. Let the mixture sit for a few weeks to develop flavor.

Strain and bottle

  1. Strain and bottle the liqueur for use.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Peppermint + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Peppermint + sagetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together41 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Peppermint + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together338 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Sage + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together140 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Peppermint
Provides the main minty aroma and flavor that defines the liqueur.
80% alcohol
Extracts the aromatic oils and flavor compounds from the botanicals and preserves the liqueur.
White sugar
Sweetens the liqueur and balances the strong herbal bitterness of the botanicals.
Orris root
Adds a subtle floral, violet-like fragrance that helps round out the aroma.

The step that matters

Let the mixture sit for a few weeks. Flavor compounds from the botanicals are extracted slowly by the alcohol over time. Rushing this rest leaves the liqueur thin, harsh, or unbalanced in aroma.

Swap the sage

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against peppermint, cinnamon, ginger, sugar. 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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