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Dessert

Peppermint Drops

A peppermint-flavored candy made with isinglass, gum arabic, boiling water, sugar, and peppermint oil.

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 Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve isinglass and gum arabic in boiling water.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 2 hours.

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

  4. Add the oil of peppermint to the sugar and mix well.

Shape and dry

  1. Drop the mixture onto paper and let it dry at room temperature or in a warm room.

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
Gels the dissolved liquid so the sugar mixture holds its shape as it dries.
Gum arabic
Thickens the liquid and helps the drops set with a smooth, firm texture.
Loaf sugar
Forms the bulk of the drop, providing sweetness and the solid body of the candy.
Oil of peppermint
Supplies the mint flavour and aroma throughout the sugar.

The step that matters

Drop the mixture onto paper and let it dry. The drops must be dried fully at room or warm temperature so they set firm and hold their shape. Drying too quickly or in a damp room can leave them sticky or misshapen.

“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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