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
Cook the syrup
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and water.
Boil for 5 minutes without stirring.
Remove from heat and add peppermint extract to taste.
Shape the drops
Beat the mixture until it thickens.
Drop spoonfuls onto well-buttered paper.
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
- Granulated sugar
- Provides the sweetness and, once boiled and cooled, sets into the firm candy structure.
The step that matters
Boil for 5 minutes without stirring. Stirring a boiling sugar syrup can encourage sugar crystals to form, which makes the drops grainy instead of smooth. Leaving it undisturbed lets the syrup reach the concentration needed for a firm candy.
“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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