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Peppermint Cordial

A sweet liquid made by dissolving sugar in boiling water, adding honey and peppermint essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and peppermint work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 345 recipes. Both carry methyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells apple, fatty. The science ↓

Peppermint Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine the loaf sugar and boiling water.

  2. Simmer for 10 minutes.

  3. Stir in the honey until dissolved.

Flavour and bottle

  1. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add the essence of peppermint.

  2. Bottle the cordial for use.

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. Honey + pepperminttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together345 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  2. Sugar + honeytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,932 recipes

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

  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 the sweetness and body of the syrup.
Honey
Adds sweetness and a softer flavour, and helps keep the sugar from crystallising.
Essence of peppermint
Provides the main aroma and flavour of the cordial.

The step that matters

Adding the peppermint after cooling slightly. Peppermint's aromatic oils are volatile and evaporate readily in heat, so adding the essence to a very hot syrup can weaken its aroma. Letting the mixture cool slightly first helps keep the flavour in the finished cordial.

Swap the peppermint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, honey. 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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