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Peppermint Drops

Hard sugar candy flavoured with peppermint oil and dropped onto paraffine paper to set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peppermint and pecans work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Peppermint Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Put the water and sugar on to boil.

  2. Let the sugar melt slowly so that it does not burn.

  3. Let it cook without stirring until it threads.

  4. Boil ten minutes without stirring.

Flavor and shape

  1. Remove from the fire and add eight drops of oil of peppermint.

  2. When removed from the stove, beat with an egg-beater until it falls in long drops.

  3. Stir in the nuts until they are sugared.

  4. Drop quickly on paraffine paper.

  5. Spread on paraffine paper to cool.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

188Calories
0 gProtein
16 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Pecan1 half (4g)20
Peppermintnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Peppermint + pecanstop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together34 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Sugar + pecanstop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  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

Granulated sugar
Forms the syrup base that cooks to a candy structure as it boils.
Pecans
Add crunch and texture, and are coated with the sugar syrup as it stirs.
Oil of peppermint
Provides the main flavor of the drops.

The step that matters

Cook without stirring. Stirring a boiling sugar syrup can encourage crystals to form, making the candy grainy. Letting it melt slowly and boil undisturbed helps it reach the thread stage smoothly.

Swap the peppermint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pecans. 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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