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 ↓
Peppermints and Fancy Mints
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the granulated sugar and hot water for 4 minutes.
Remove from heat and add the confectioner's sugar and essence of peppermint.
Thicken and shape
Stir until the mixture begins to thicken.
Drop by teaspoons onto waxed paper.
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
- Dissolves in the hot water to form a syrup that hardens into a firm, sweet candy as it cools.
- Confectioner's sugar
- Adds body and helps the mixture thicken quickly into a soft, scoopable paste.
- Hot water
- Dissolves the granulated sugar so it can boil into a smooth syrup.
- Essence of peppermint
- Provides the main minty flavor and aroma.
The step that matters
Stirring until the mixture begins to thicken. Once the confectioner's sugar is added, the mixture thickens quickly. If you wait too long, it stiffens before you can drop it, and the candies come out uneven or crumbly.
“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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