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Peppermint Drops

A simple sugar syrup flavored with peppermint, dropped onto paper to set.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 Drops

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine sugar and water in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in peppermint.

  4. Continue stirring until the mixture drops easily from a spoon.

  5. Drop spoonfuls onto buttered paper to cool.

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 + pepperminttop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 candy base and provides sweetness as it cooks into a hard syrup.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can heat evenly and form a smooth syrup.

The step that matters

Continue stirring until the mixture drops easily from a spoon. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firm when cool. Stopping too early leaves a soft, sticky candy, while cooking too far can make it brittle or grainy.

“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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