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Dessert

After-dinner Mints

A sugar-based mint candy made by boiling sugar, water, and cream of tartar, then pulling with peppermint extract and fondant.

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 of sugar, 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar, and 3 quarts of water in a kettle. Heat and mix until boiling.

  2. Remove the paddle and wash the sides of the kettle with a damp brush. Cover and steam for a few minutes.

  3. Remove the cover, insert a thermometer, and cook until the mixture reaches 276 °F.

Pull and shape

  1. Pour the mixture onto a greased slab. Do not turn the edges up until it has set for a few minutes.

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

  3. Place 1 lb of fondant on the mixture and continue to pull until well combined.

  4. 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.

Cut and set

  1. Once the entire batch is pulled, cut it into pieces. Allow to set overnight.

  2. The next morning, the mints should be grained and ready for storage. Optionally, flavor some 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 sugar syrup that sets into the firm, crisp body of the mint.
Cream of tartar
Acid that helps prevent large sugar crystals, keeping the texture smooth and fine.
Fondant
Adds sugar crystals that seed graining, giving the mints their soft, opaque, white texture.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked evenly into syrup.

The step that matters

Cooking to 276 °F. Sugar syrup must reach the right temperature to set firm after pulling. Too little cooking leaves the mints soft and sticky, while too much 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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