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Dessert

Peppermint Drops

A hard candy made from sugar, water, cream of tartar, peppermint oil, and optional coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Peppermint Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar and water in a pot until thick.

Prepare the flavouring

  1. In a separate bowl, mix cream of tartar, sugar, oil of peppermint, and water.

  2. Stir the mixture well and combine it with the boiled sugar and water.

Finish and drop

  1. Beat the combined mixture half a cup at a time until creamy.

  2. Add vegetable coloring for desired color.

  3. Drop spoonfuls onto marble or greased paper.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + pepperminttop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together632 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. 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

Sugar
Forms the sweet base and, when cooked and beaten, sets into the firm candy.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the sugar, helping prevent crystallisation so the candy stays smooth.
Oil of peppermint
Provides the characteristic peppermint aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture until creamy, in small batches. Beating cooled, supersaturated sugar syrup causes fine crystals to form, turning it opaque and creamy. Adding it in small portions lets the mass be worked evenly, so the drops set firm rather than grainy or runny.

Swap the peppermint

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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