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 ↓
Cream Peppermint Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil granulated sugar and hot water for 3 minutes without stirring after it begins to boil.
Flavour and shape
Mix powdered sugar with oil of peppermint in a separate bowl.
Add the peppermint mixture to the boiling sugar and stir off the heat until it creams.
Drop the mixture onto a cold marble platter.
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
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the sweet base that cooks into a syrup and hardens as the drops set.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and fine particles that help the mixture thicken and turn creamy.
- Oil of peppermint
- Provides the concentrated peppermint aroma and flavour.
The step that matters
Stirring off the heat until it creams. Sugar syrup must be allowed to cool slightly before stirring. Stirring while it is too hot keeps it runny, while stirring after it has cooled too far can make it set before it can be dropped.
“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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