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Dessert

Peppermint Stick Candy

A hard candy made from sugar, water, cream of tartar, and peppermint oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Peppermint Stick Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy base

  1. Combine sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a copper pan.

  2. Heat the pan over a good flame, stirring until the sugar begins to boil.

  3. Cover the pan with a galvanized iron or wooden lid and steam for a few minutes.

  4. Remove the cover, insert a thermometer, and cook until the mixture reaches 330°F (165°C).

  5. Pour the mixture onto greased marble, reserving 2 pounds for stripping.

Color and shape

  1. Color the reserved mixture red and warm the pan again before pouring it onto the marble.

  2. Once cool, fold the red mixture into a lump and keep it warm.

  3. Fold the main batch, add peppermint oil, and pull a little over the hook to remove air.

  4. Form the mixture into a round, oblong piece.

  5. Knead the red piece slightly, then roll and pull it into thin strips.

Pull and twist

  1. Lay the strips over the main batch about 2 inches apart.

  2. Roll the entire batch slightly, warm the end while pulling it out, and start to spin and twist.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + pepperminttop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together632 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. 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

Sugar
Forms the main candy mass that sets into a hard, glassy structure as it cooks.
Cream of tartar
Acid that helps prevent sugar crystals from forming, keeping the candy smooth.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked evenly to the target temperature.

The step that matters

Cooking to 330°F (165°C). Sugar syrup's final texture depends on how far water has evaporated. Stopping short leaves a soft, sticky candy that will not hold its shape, while overcooking makes it brittle and prone to scorching.

Swap the peppermint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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