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Peppermint Cordial

A sweet peppermint‑flavored spirit made by infusing peppermint oil into wine and mixing with syrup and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 Cordial

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the oil of peppermint and spirit of wine together well.

  2. Add the clear syrup and boiled soft water.

  3. Stir until fully combined.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  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 characteristic peppermint aroma and flavour.
Spirit of wine
Dissolves the peppermint oil so it mixes evenly into the liquid.
Clear syrup
Adds sweetness and body to balance the strong peppermint flavour.

The step that matters

Mix the oil of peppermint and spirit of wine together well. Peppermint oil does not dissolve in water, so it must first be thoroughly blended into the alcohol. If it is not fully dispersed before the syrup and water go in, it can separate or cloud and give uneven flavour.

Swap the peppermint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, wine, 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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