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
Prepare the gum
Soak the gum dragon in warm water until softened.
Squeeze it through a fine sieve into a bowl.
Make the paste
Mix the gum with powdered sugar and oil of peppermint until a stiff paste forms.
Knead the mixture until smooth.
Roll out the paste to ⅛ inch thick and cut into small rounds.
Dry and store
Dry the drops on sheets of paper in a cool place or near a fire.
Store in boxes or glass containers for later use.
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
- Gum dragon
- Swells in warm water to form a sticky, binding base for the paste.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and bulk, stiffening the gum into a workable paste.
- Oil of peppermint
- Provides the main minty aroma and flavor.
The step that matters
Kneading the stiff paste until smooth. If the paste is not kneaded enough, the sugar and gum stay unevenly combined, so the drops can be crumbly in some spots and sticky in others. Thorough working distributes the moisture and sugar evenly before rolling.
“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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