Name: Christmas Candy
Ingredients: 10 pounds granulated sugar; maple sugar or syrup; peppermint extract; various extracts and color pastes

Why it works: Sugar and peppermint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,082 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Christmas Candy

Ingredients

10 pounds granulated sugar
maple sugar or syrup
peppermint extract
various extracts and color pastes

Directions

Make the candy

Combine 10 pounds of granulated sugar with a small amount of maple sugar or syrup.
Add peppermint extract and any other desired extracts and color pastes. Mix thoroughly until well combined.

Shape and dry

Shape the mixture into flat, round patties.
Allow the patties to dry before serving or packaging.

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.

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 bulk of the candy and sets into a firm, crisp body as the patties dry.
Maple sugar or syrup: Adds moisture and a mild, warm sweetness that flavors the sugar base.
Peppermint extract: Provides the main minty aroma that defines the candy.

“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.