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 ↓
Sugar Mints
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 234°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the syrup
Combine 6 lbs of sugar and 1 qt of water in a large pot. Cook until the mixture reaches 234°F to 235°F.
Remove from heat and pour about 1 lb of the syrup into a dipper.
Flavor and shape
Add a little additional sugar and peppermint extract to the syrup. Stir until it becomes cloudy.
Using a funnel, drop the mixture onto sheets of tin or wax paper.
Repeat the process until all the syrup is used up, making some mints white and others pink.
Flavor the pink mints with wintergreen extract.
For best results, use a 3 or 4 nose copper pan to drop the mints and cut them off with a wire.
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
- Sugar
- Forms the mint base and, once cooked to temperature and cooled, sets into a firm, crisp candy.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked into a smooth syrup without crystallising early.
The step that matters
Cook the syrup to 234°F to 235°F. Sugar syrup set at this temperature has the right concentration to harden into firm mints when cooled. Undercooked syrup stays soft and sticky, while overcooked syrup turns hard and brittle.
“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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