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 ↓
Peppermints
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a saucepan, combine sugar and water.
Boil for five minutes.
Flavour and shape
Remove from heat and add peppermint extract to taste.
Stir until the mixture thickens and becomes creamy.
Drop spoonfuls onto buttered paper to cool.
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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Sugar + pepperminttop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Sweetens the candy and, once boiled and cooled, sets into a firm, hard texture.
- Peppermint extract
- Gives the candy its minty aroma and flavour.
The step that matters
Stir until the mixture thickens and becomes creamy. As a hot sugar syrup cools and is stirred, tiny sugar crystals form, which gives a creamy, opaque texture. Stirring too long can make the mixture set too stiff to drop, so spoon it out once it thickens.
“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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