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Peppermint

A peppermint liqueur made by infusing rectified malt spirit with peppermint oil, sugar, wine spirit, and clarified with alum and tartar salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Spirit and wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 701 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Peppermint

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Combine 13 cups rectified malt spirit, 15 pennyweights oil of peppermint, 12 pounds loaf sugar, and 1½ cups spirit of wine in a large container.

  2. Fill the container with water.

Fine the liquor

  1. Boil 2 ounces alum with a little water for 30 minutes to fine the liquor.

  2. Gradually add 1 ounce salt of tartar to the boiled alum mixture.

  3. Once nearly cold, pour the mixture into the cask and stir for 5–6 minutes.

  4. Do not seal the cask tightly until the liquor is fine.

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. Spirit + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together701 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Peppermint + winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together369 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Spirit + pepperminttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Malt + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together325 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rectified malt spirit
Forms the alcoholic base that carries the flavour and keeps the liqueur stable.
Oil of peppermint
Provides the dominant peppermint aroma and flavour.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body to balance the alcohol and peppermint.
Alum
Helps clarify the liquor by causing suspended particles to clump and settle.

The step that matters

Do not seal the cask tightly until the liquor is fine. Clarifying with alum and salt of tartar needs time for particles to settle. Sealing too early traps the mixture before it clears, leaving it cloudy.

Swap the peppermint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against malt, spirit, sugar, wine. 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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