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Peppermint Lozenges

A sweet, peppermint-flavored lozenge made from powdered sugar and gum arabic.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. On a marble slab, create a well in the center of the powdered sugar.

  2. Pour in the dissolved gum arabic and mix into a paste.

  3. Flavor the paste with essence of peppermint.

Shape the lozenges

  1. Roll the paste until it is about ⅛ inch thick.

  2. Dust the surface with starch powder and sugar to prevent sticking.

  3. Cut out lozenges and place them on a tray.

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. Sugar + pepperminttop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Powdered loaf sugar
Forms the bulk of the lozenge and provides sweetness.
Gum arabic
Binds the sugar into a workable paste that holds its shape when rolled and cut.

The step that matters

Mixing the gum arabic into the sugar. Gum arabic must be fully dissolved and added gradually so the sugar forms an even, pliable paste. Lumps or overly wet paste will make rolling uneven and cut lozenges fragile or sticky.

“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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