Why it works: Sugar and peppermint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,082 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Peppermint Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a bowl, combine glucose and boiling water.
Stir in enough confectioner's sugar to form a stiff dough.
Knead the mixture thoroughly like dough.
Add 5 drops of oil of peppermint and mix well.
Shape the drops
Shape the dough into balls quickly and place them on flat tins.
Press the balls flat.
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.
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Sugar + pepperminttop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Glucose
- Adds sweetness and helps keep the dough soft and pliable.
- Confectioner's sugar
- Provides the bulk of the sweetness and firms the mixture into a stiff dough.
The step that matters
Shape the dough into balls quickly. Confectioner's sugar mixtures dry out and stiffen as they stand, so working quickly keeps the dough soft enough to shape cleanly and press flat.
“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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