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Dessert

After Dinner Mints

A peppermint-flavored candy made from sugar, glucose, butter, and peppermint oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

After Dinner Mints

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, glucose, and water in a large pot.

  2. Boil on high heat without stirring until it reaches the crack stage.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted.

Cool and pull

  1. Pour mixture onto a greased slab.

  2. Let cool until manageable.

  3. Pull mixture on a hook until it turns white.

  4. Add peppermint oil to taste.

Shape and finish

  1. Spin the batch out before a furnace or fire.

  2. Cut the spun candy with a ½ inch cutter.

  3. Roll in powdered sugar.

  4. Allow the mints to ripen for 24 hours.

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 + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Butter + pepperminttop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together958 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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 crystalline base that gives the mints their structure and sweetness.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and less grainy.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the texture and gives the candy a richer mouthfeel.
Peppermint oil
Provides the characteristic minty aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Boil without stirring. Stirring hot sugar syrup can trigger premature crystallization, leading to a grainy rather than smooth candy. Letting it boil undisturbed until it reaches the crack stage ensures the right concentration for a firm, clean texture.

Swap the peppermint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter. 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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