Why it works: Mint and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,592 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Creme De Menthe
Ingredients
Directions
Infuse the alcohol
Fill a 1 quart jar with fresh mint leaves and pour 1½ pints of deodorized alcohol over them.
Let the mixture stand for 3 hours, shaking occasionally.
Make the syrup
In the meantime, mix 1 quart of granulated sugar with 1 quart of hot water.
Boil the mixture for a few minutes.
Allow the syrup to cool.
Combine and strain
Strain the alcohol into a pitcher.
Pour the cooled syrup into the pitcher, not the other way around.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Mint + sugartop 32% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together2,592 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh mint leaves
- Supply the mint flavour and aroma that the alcohol draws out during infusion.
- Deodorized alcohol
- Extracts the mint oils and flavour from the leaves and keeps the liqueur stable.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the liqueur and gives it a smooth, rounded body.
The step that matters
Pour the cooled syrup into the alcohol, not the reverse. Adding syrup to alcohol is the order given in the record. Syrup must be cooled so it does not cause the alcohol to heat or vaporise, and the order keeps the mixing controlled.
“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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