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Dessert

Peppermint Drops

A hard candy made from sugar, milk, peppermint oil, and buttered paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Peppermint Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and enough milk to dissolve the sugar.

  2. Boil the mixture until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water.

Cool and shape

  1. Remove from heat and set the pan in a bowl of iced water.

  2. When the mixture is nearly cold, add the oil of peppermint and stir until creamy.

  3. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered paper to cool.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  4. Milk + pepperminttop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together479 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Peppermint + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together958 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Granulated sugar
Forms the candy's structure and sweetness as it cooks and sets.
Milk
Dissolves the sugar and adds moisture for a softer, creamier texture.
Oil of peppermint
Provides the peppermint aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Boil until a soft ball forms in cold water. Sugar syrup sets according to its final temperature. Stopping too early leaves the drops soft and sticky, while cooking too long makes them hard and brittle.

Swap the peppermint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter. 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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