Why it works: Sugar and peppermint are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,082 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Peppermint Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Boil sugar and water for 7 minutes.
Remove from heat and add oil of peppermint.
Let cool slightly, then drop onto buttered tins.
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 + pepperminttop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, once boiled and cooled, sets into a firm candy.
- Oil of peppermint
- Provides the peppermint aroma and flavour.
The step that matters
Boil for 7 minutes, then add the peppermint off the heat. Boiling concentrates the sugar syrup by driving off water, which determines how firm the drops become as they cool. Adding the peppermint after removing the pan from heat keeps its volatile aromatic compounds from evaporating in the heat.
“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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