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Peppermint Drops

A sugar candy flavored with peppermint oil.

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 Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and mix

  1. Pound and sift the sugar.

  2. Beat the sugar with the egg whites until smooth.

  3. Add the oil of peppermint and mix well.

Drop and dry

  1. Drop the mixture onto white paper.

  2. Allow to dry away from the fire.

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. 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

Double refined sugar
Forms the bulk of the drops and provides sweetness and a firm, set texture.
Egg whites
Whip into the sugar to give the mixture body and help it hold its shape.
Oil of peppermint
Supplies the strong peppermint aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Allow to dry away from the fire. Sugar and egg white mixtures set as they dry at moderate temperature. Gentle heat from a fire can soften or melt the sugar, making the drops spread, sticky or uneven.

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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