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Dessert

Gum Drops

A confection made by dissolving gum arabic in water, adding sugar, and coating the set drops in granulated sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Gum Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Dissolve the gum arabic in tepid water.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Add the confectioners’ sugar.

  4. Cook in a double boiler until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  5. Do not stir after mixing thoroughly.

  6. Flavor the syrup with lemon or rose while warm, if desired.

Set the drops

  1. Prepare starch trays.

  2. Fill the impressions using a dropper.

  3. Set the filled trays aside in a warm place for 2 to 3 days until they can be handled.

Finish

  1. Dampen the gum drops slightly.

  2. Brush off any excess starch.

  3. Shake them in granulated sugar.

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 + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gum arabic
Forms the gel structure that gives the gum drops their chewy body as the mixture sets.
Confectioners’ sugar
Adds sweetness and bulk to the syrup, helping it set firm and hold its shape.
Tepid water
Dissolves the gum arabic so it can be strained and cooked into an even syrup.

The step that matters

Cooking to the soft ball stage. Cooking too little leaves the syrup too soft to set, while cooking too long makes the drops hard. Stopping at the soft ball stage sets the right firmness. Avoid stirring once mixed, since stirring can encourage sugar crystals to form.

“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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