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 ↓
Lemon and Peppermint Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Place sugar in a saucepan and add just enough water to make a stiff paste.
Heat the mixture over the fire, stirring continuously until bubbles begin to rise, but do not let it boil.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly while stirring.
Add peppermint or lemon essence to taste.
Drop and dry
Tilt the saucepan to drop the mixture onto smooth white paper or tins using a stiff wire to stroke it off.
Allow the drops to dry in a warm place for a few hours.
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
- Dry granulated sugar
- Forms the bulk of the drops and sets firm as the mixture cools and dries.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be heated into a workable paste.
The step that matters
Heating without boiling. Stopping at the first bubbles keeps the sugar concentration right; boiling too long makes the mixture harden or crystallise unevenly, and the drops may turn 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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