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Peppermint Cordial

A peppermint cordial made by dissolving sugar in water, adding gin or spirit, and infusing with peppermint oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gin work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 344 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Peppermint Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Dissolve the loaf sugar in the water.

  2. Add the gin or proof spirit to the mixture.

Flavor and finish

  1. Mix in the oil of peppermint drop by drop until the desired flavor is achieved.

  2. Let the mixture stand until it is clear.

  3. Bottle the peppermint cordial.

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 + gintop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together344 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Gin + pepperminttop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. 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

Loaf sugar
Provides sweetness and body, rounding out the sharpness of the spirit.
Gin or proof spirit
Dissolves the peppermint oil and gives the cordial its alcohol content.
Oil of peppermint
Provides the main peppermint flavor and aroma.

The step that matters

Mix in the oil of peppermint drop by drop. Peppermint oil is very concentrated, so a few extra drops can make the cordial overpowering and cannot be removed. Adding it gradually and tasting as you go lets you stop at the desired strength. The spirit disperses the oil evenly, so it should be fully blended before judging the flavor.

Swap the peppermint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, gin):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, gin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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