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Peppermint Creams

A confection made from egg whites, icing sugar, and peppermint extract, shaped and dried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Peppermint Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. In a bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy.

  2. Gradually add icing sugar until a stiff paste forms.

  3. Mix in a few drops of peppermint extract.

Shape and set

  1. Roll out the mixture to a thickness of ½ inch.

  2. Cut into shapes using molds.

  3. Place the cut pieces on sheets of paper to set.

  4. Allow to dry overnight.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + pepperminttop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,082 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + pepperminttop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together850 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they give the paste air and a light, binding structure.
Icing sugar
Stiffens the whipped whites into a paste that holds its shape when cut.
Peppermint extract
Adds the characteristic mint aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Adding icing sugar until a stiff paste forms. Too little sugar leaves the paste soft and sticky so shapes lose their edges, while too much makes it dry and crumbly. Adding it gradually lets you stop when the paste is stiff but still pliable.

Swap the peppermint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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