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 ↓
Peppermint Lozenges, No. 1
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the paste
Sift the sugar through a fine sieve onto a marble slab.
Make a well in the sugar and pour in the dissolved gum.
Mix into a paste, adding oil of peppermint for flavor.
Shape the lozenges
Roll out the paste to about ⅛ inch thick, dusting with starch powder to prevent sticking.
Cut into desired shapes using tin cutters.
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
- Double-refined loaf sugar
- Forms the bulk of the lozenge and sets into a firm, sweet candy.
- Gum arabic
- Acts as a binder that holds the sugar into a workable paste and keeps the lozenges firm.
- Oil of peppermint
- Provides the characteristic peppermint aroma and flavor.
The step that matters
Mixing the paste. The gum must be fully dissolved and worked evenly into the sifted sugar; lumps or uneven mixing leave dry or sticky spots that make rolling and cutting difficult.
“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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