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Dessert

Peppermint Creams

A confectionery treat made from egg white, cold water, confectioner's sugar, peppermint oil, and optional coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Peppermint Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. In a bowl, break the egg white and add cold water.

  2. Stir in enough confectioner's sugar to make a stiff mixture.

  3. Flavor with three drops of oil of peppermint.

Shape and finish

  1. Lightly grease a large baking tin.

  2. Drop the mixture onto the tin using a teaspoon, spacing them far apart.

  3. Wet the back of a teaspoon with cold water or alcohol and press each cream flat, repeating the wetting each time.

  4. Optionally, color the creams with fruit coloring or cochineal.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + pepperminttop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together850 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg white
Whipped-free binder that gives the sugar mixture body and helps the creams hold their shape.
Confectioner's sugar
Sweetens and, as it is stirred in, thickens the liquid into a stiff, shapeable paste.
Cold water
Moistens the egg white and sugar so they combine into a smooth, workable mixture.
Oil of peppermint
Provides the characteristic peppermint aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Stiffening the mixture with sugar. Sugar must be added until the mixture is stiff enough to hold a drop shape. Too little leaves the creams spreading and soft, while the right stiffness lets them set firm and keep their form.

Swap the peppermint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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