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Dessert

After-dinner Mints

A sweet confection made from sugar, water, cream of tartar, peppermint extract, and fondant, pulled into strips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

After-dinner Mints

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine 10 lbs sugar, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 3 quarts water in a kettle, mix well, and set on fire.

  2. When the mixture starts to boil, remove the paddle and wash the sides of the kettle with a damp brush.

  3. Cover the kettle and allow it to steam for a few minutes.

  4. Remove the cover, insert a thermometer, and cook until the temperature reaches 276°F (135°C).

  5. Pour the mixture onto a greased slab and let it set for a few minutes without turning the edges up.

Pull and shape

  1. Knead the mixture until it is almost cold, then pull it while adding peppermint extract until the batch is white.

  2. Add about 1 lb fondant and continue to pull until well mixed.

  3. On a powdered sugar-dusted table, pull the mixture into strips as long as your butter-cup cutter and about as thick as your finger.

  4. Once the entire batch is pulled, cut it into pieces.

Set and store

  1. Allow the mints to set overnight.

  2. The next morning, they should be grained and ready for storage.

  3. Optionally, make some mints flavored with lemon, orange, or lime.

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 sweet, crystalline body of the mint once cooked and pulled.
Cream of tartar
Acid that helps prevent large sugar crystals from forming during cooking.
Fondant
Adds a softer, creamier sugar base that helps the pulled mints set smooth.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 276°F (135°C). Temperature sets the sugar concentration that determines the final texture. Undercooking leaves mints soft and sticky, while overcooking makes them hard and brittle.

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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