Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Mint Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Make the mint paste
Soak the gelatine in ½ cup of cold water for 30 minutes.
Combine the remaining ½ cup of cold water with the sugar and bring to a boil.
Add the soaked gelatine and boil for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the strained lemon juice, creme de menthe, and salt.
Pour the mixture into a flat pan and let it stand until stiff and cold.
Cut and coat
Remove from the pan, cut into cubes, and roll each cube in confectioner's sugar.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly that holds its shape.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with the gelatine, gives the paste its chewy body.
- Creme de menthe
- Adds the mint flavour and aroma that define the paste.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and balances the mint.
The step that matters
Boil the gelatine mixture for the full 20 minutes. Boiling dissolves the sugar to a thick syrup and the gelatine must be fully dissolved into it. Too little boiling leaves the mixture soft and unable to set firmly when cooled.
“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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