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, No. 1
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the sugar
Sift the sugar through a fine sieve.
Make a mound with the sugar on a marble slab.
Make and shape the paste
Pour in the dissolved gum and mix into a paste like dough.
Flavor the mixture with oil of peppermint.
Roll out the paste to your desired thickness.
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.
-
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
- Double refined loaf sugar
- Forms the bulk of the lozenge and provides its sweetness and firm, crisp body.
- Dissolved gum
- Binds the sugar into a cohesive paste that holds together when rolled.
- Oil of peppermint
- Supplies the minty aroma and flavor throughout the lozenge.
The step that matters
Mixing in the dissolved gum to a dough-like paste. The gum must be worked evenly through the sugar. Too little leaves the mixture crumbly and hard to roll, while too much makes it sticky and soft, so the paste will not shape cleanly.
“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 Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.