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Dessert

Peppermint Lozenges

A peppermint‑flavored sugar lozenge made with isinglass, gum arabic, boiling water, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 Lozenges

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve isinglass and gum arabic in boiling water and let it cool.

  2. Grate the loaf sugar and sift it through a fine sieve.

Shape

  1. Add peppermint oil to the sugar mixture and mix until stiff.

  2. On a fine marble surface, roll out part of the sugar mixture thin.

  3. Cut into lozenge shapes using a tin mold.

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 + 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

Isinglass
Gelatin-like binder that gives the mixture cohesion so it holds its shape.
Gum arabic
Adds binding and body, helping the mixture stay firm and hold a cut edge.
Loaf sugar
Forms the bulk of the lozenge, providing sweetness and a firm, solid structure.
Peppermint oil
Provides the characteristic peppermint aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Add peppermint oil to the sugar mixture and mix until stiff. The binder mixture must be cool and combined evenly with the sugar; uneven mixing leaves soft or uneven patches, and the dough must reach a stiff, workable consistency before rolling so the lozenges hold their shape when cut.

“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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