Why it works: Licorice and fennel work together. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Licorice Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batch
Cook a batch the same as for lemon drops.
Pour the mixture onto a slab.
Flavour
Add menthol crystals and powdered licorice.
Knead the mixture and add oil of fennel.
Shape
When almost cool, run through rollers into desired shapes.
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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Licorice + fenneltop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together5 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Powdered licorice
- Provides the main licorice flavour and dark colour to the candy.
- Menthol crystals
- Adds a cooling sensation and a minty aroma.
- Oil of fennel
- Adds a sweet, anise-like aroma that reinforces the licorice flavour.
The step that matters
Running the mixture through rollers while almost cool. If the candy is too hot it will stick and deform, but if it is fully set it will crack and resist shaping. Rolling it while it is just cool enough to hold its form but still soft keeps the pieces smooth and even.
“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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