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Peppermint Cordial

An alcoholic peppermint liqueur made by infusing peppermint oil in spirit and sweetening with sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Peppermint Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the oil of peppermint in the pure spirit.

  2. Add the white sugar syrup to the mixture.

  3. Bottle the 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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Spirit + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Peppermint + spirittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Spirit + sugartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Peppermint + syruptop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oil of peppermint
Provides the main peppermint flavour and aroma.
Pure spirit
Carries and dissolves the peppermint oil so it mixes evenly into the cordial.
White sugar syrup
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the strong peppermint flavour.

The step that matters

Dissolving the oil of peppermint in the spirit. Peppermint oil does not dissolve in water-based syrup, so it must first be fully dissolved in the alcohol. Adding it to syrup directly can leave oily specks or uneven flavour. Once the oil is dispersed in the spirit, the syrup can be added without separation.

Swap the peppermint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, sugar, syrup. 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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