Why it works: Sugar and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Clove Lozenges
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the paste
Soak the gum-dragon in a little tepid water for six hours.
Work the gum on a marble slab with your hand.
Slowly mix in the icing sugar, flavor with essence of cloves, and color with burnt umber.
Shape the lozenges
Dredge caster sugar on the slab to about ½ inch thick.
Roll out the paste on the sugared slab and stamp out lozenges with a small cutter.
Place the lozenges in rows on baking sheets dusted with caster sugar and let them dry.
Store
Store the dried lozenges in well-stopped glass jars in a dry place.
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 + clovetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gum-dragon
- Forms the firm, pliable base that holds the shape of the lozenges.
- Icing sugar
- Adds sweetness and bulk, stiffening the paste so it can be rolled and cut.
- Essence of cloves
- Provides the spiced clove aroma that defines the lozenge flavor.
- Burnt umber
- Colors the paste a brown tone.
The step that matters
Working the icing sugar into the gum. Gum-dragon sets stiff as icing sugar is added, so it must be mixed in slowly and evenly. Adding it too fast leaves dry lumps and an uneven paste that cracks when rolled and cut.
“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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