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
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Boil for 5 minutes, starting from when it begins to boil.
Flavour and shape
Remove from heat and add peppermint flavoring.
Stir rapidly until the mixture turns a whitish color.
Quickly pour into greased tiny patty-pan molds.
Allow to harden before serving.
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 hard, glassy candy structure as the syrup cools and sets.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into a smooth syrup.
- Peppermint oil or extract
- Provides the peppermint aroma and flavour that defines the drops.
The step that matters
Stirring until whitish. Stirring rapidly after removing from heat encourages fine sugar crystals to form, turning the clear syrup opaque so it sets firm in the molds. Pouring too late, after it has stiffened, leaves the molds hard to fill.
“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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