Why it works: Molasses and peppermint work together. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 65 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Molasses Peppermint Kisses
Ingredients
Directions
Cook and pour
Combine molasses and glucose in a copper kettle.
Stir and cook until it reaches the hard ball stage.
Pour the mixture onto an oiled slab.
Fold and pull
Once cool enough to handle, fold up the edges repeatedly until ready to pull.
Add peppermint oil and pull the mixture until light and spongy.
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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Molasses + pepperminttop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together65 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Adds deep sweetness, dark color and a rich flavor that defines the candy.
- Glucose
- Inhibits sugar crystals, keeping the candy smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
The step that matters
Cooking to the hard ball stage. The sugar concentration reached at this stage sets the final texture. Stopping early leaves the candy soft and sticky, while cooking too far makes it 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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