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Dessert

Peppermint Creams

A sweet confection made from sugar, peppermint essence, and egg white, rolled thin and cut into shapes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 dough

  1. Mix the sugar, peppermint essence, and egg white together until well combined.

  2. Roll the mixture out thinly on a well-sugared surface using a sugared rolling pin.

  3. Cut out shapes with a sharp cutter.

Chill and pack

  1. Place the cutouts in a cold area for about an hour.

  2. Pack the peppermint creams in small fancy boxes.

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 + eggtop 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. Peppermint + eggtop 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, with the egg white, forms the firm paste that is rolled and cut.
Egg white
Binds the sugar into a pliable paste that holds its shape when rolled and cut.
Peppermint essence
Gives the creams their mint flavour and aroma.

The step that matters

Rolling the mixture thinly on a well-sugared surface. The sugar paste is sticky, so a generous dusting of sugar on the surface and rolling pin keeps it from clinging. Rolling it to an even, thin sheet lets the cutter make clean shapes and gives a delicate texture once chilled.

Swap the peppermint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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