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Peppermint Drops
Rub the inside of a brass or block-tin saucepan with a little oil or butter. Put into it half a pound of powdered and sifted loaf sugar, and two or three table-spoonfuls of water or of strained lemon-juice. Place the saucepan on the fire, and let the syrup boil for ten minutes, then stir into it a dessert-spoonful of the essence of peppermint, or one hundred and twenty drops of the oil of peppermint. Let the mixture fall in drops upon white paper which has been well rubbed over with butter. Probable cost, 1d. per ounce.
This is a grained-sugar drop — a boiled syrup beaten until it clouds and sets opaque — rather than a hard-boiled mint. The instructions assume knowledge the Victorian confectioner had and the book does not spell out.
- The hinge: grainingThe recipe gives a time rather than a temperature. Half a pound of sugar with two or three spoonfuls of water is a very concentrated syrup, and ten minutes' boiling may take it anywhere from soft-ball upwards depending on the heat, so use a thermometer rather than the clock. The book does not say so, but drops of this kind were usually beaten off the heat until the clear syrup clouds and thickens, then dropped while it still runs.
- Do not use the brass panBrass and unlined copper react with acid, and this recipe pairs them with lemon juice. Block tin is also long gone from domestic kitchens. Use a heavy stainless steel saucepan.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone and pounded; "powdered and sifted" means ground fine, not modern icing sugar with its cornflour. Ordinary granulated or caster sugar is the correct substitute — 8 oz is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons.
- The peppermint quantityOne hundred and twenty drops of oil of peppermint is roughly 6 ml (drop sizes for oils vary), which is a very large dose against half a pound of sugar and would be fiercely medicinal by current taste. Modern confectioners use roughly 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint oil, or 1 teaspoon of the much weaker peppermint extract, per pound of sugar. Add a little, taste the mixture on a cold spoon, and build up.
- Essence versus oil"Essence of peppermint" was an alcoholic tincture and far weaker than the oil. The recipe offers a dessert-spoonful of the essence and 120 drops of the oil as alternatives, which are similar volumes but very different strengths. Check the strength of whatever you buy rather than assuming.
- Adding the flavourStir the oil in off the heat. Volatile oils flash off in a boiling syrup, and alcohol-based essences added to hot sugar can spit.
- The dropping surfaceButtered white paper works, but baking parchment or a silicone mat needs no greasing and releases cleanly. A piping bag with a plain small nozzle gives more even drops than a spoon.
- YieldHalf a pound of sugar makes a large number of small drops -- well over a hundred at about half an inch each. They keep several weeks in an airtight tin, layered between paper.
Peppermint drops sit on the border between the confectioner's shop and the apothecary's counter, and a general household dictionary such as Cassell's carries them with a costing per ounce. Peppermint had a long-standing reputation as a carminative, taken after meals for indigestion, and sugared mint lozenges were sold as much for the stomach as for the sweet tooth — the same logic that produced the after-dinner mint. The "probable cost, 1d. per ounce" note is characteristic of the book, which was written for households counting the price of every dish. The recipe calls for brass or block tin, and reckons flavouring in drops rather than spoonfuls.