Skip to main content
Dessert

Peppermint Lozenges

A chewy peppermint candy made by mixing gum tragacanth with confectioners' sugar and peppermint essence, then stamped into lozenges.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 the gum

  1. Soak 1 oz of gum tragacanth in 2 oz of tepid water for several hours until tender.

  2. Wring the gum in a cloth to remove excess water.

  3. Work the gum on a marble table or large platter with your palm until it is very white and elastic.

Make the paste

  1. Gradually mix in the confectioners' sugar until the paste is firm and compact.

  2. Add the peppermint essence and mix well.

Shape and dry

  1. Roll out the paste on a sugared surface to a thickness of a nickel.

  2. Use a tin tube or cutter the size of a quarter to stamp out the lozenges.

  3. Rework the trimmings, roll them out, and continue stamping until all the paste is used.

  4. Place the lozenges in rows on sugared baking sheets to dry in a warm place.

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

Gum tragacanth
Swells in water to form a tender, elastic paste that holds the lozenge shape.
Confectioners' sugar
Stiffens the paste and provides the sweetness, making it firm enough to roll and stamp.
Tepid water
Hydrates the gum so it softens and becomes workable.

The step that matters

Working the gum until very white and elastic. Gum tragacanth must be fully hydrated and kneaded smooth before sugar is added; under-worked gum stays lumpy and cracks when rolled, and the paste's elasticity determines whether the lozenges hold their shape.

“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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes