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Dessert

Rose Cream Mints

A confection of sugar, corn syrup, water, egg white, wintergreen flavoring, and pink coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Rose Cream Mints

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a smooth granite saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and water.

  2. Heat gradually to boiling point and boil without stirring until the syrup spins a long thread (238°F).

Finish and shape

  1. Pour the syrup slowly onto the beaten egg white and beat until the mixture holds its shape.

  2. Add the wintergreen flavoring and pink coloring.

  3. Using a pastry bag and rose tube, force the mixture onto oiled paper quickly.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Corn + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the mint and, when boiled to thread stage, sets into a firm candy.
White corn syrup
Interferes with sugar crystal formation, keeping the cooked syrup smooth and creamy.
Oil of wintergreen
Adds the characteristic minty aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Boil without stirring to 238°F. Stirring can trigger sugar crystallization, leaving the syrup grainy. Reaching the thread stage determines how firm the candy sets, so the temperature must be reached accurately.

“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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