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Dessert

Peppermint Drops

A sweet confection made from powdered sugar, lemon juice, peppermint oil, and optionally egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and peppermint match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,583 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Peppermint Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Sift the powdered sugar into lemon juice until it reaches a proper consistency.

  2. Gently dry the mixture over low heat for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in 15 drops of oil of peppermint for each ounce of sugar.

Shape and dry

  1. Drop the mixture from the point of a knife onto white paper in small rounds.

  2. If using egg whites, mix sugar and oil with beaten egg whites instead, then drop onto paper.

  3. Allow the drops to dry gradually at a distance from the fire.

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. Lemon + pepperminttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + pepperminttop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,082 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Powdered loaf sugar
Forms the bulk of the drops and provides all the sweetness.
Lemon juice
Moistens the sugar into a workable paste and adds a slight sharpness.
Oil of peppermint
Supplies the aroma and flavour that define the drops.
Egg whites
Optional; add body and help the drops hold their shape as they dry.

The step that matters

Drying the drops gradually. Sugar drops dry by losing moisture slowly. Too much heat or drying too close to the fire can melt or brown the sugar, making them sticky or misshapen, so they should dry gently at a distance from the heat.

Swap the peppermint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg. 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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