No. 3647

Peppermint Drops

Pastilles de Menthe

Mix seven ounces of the same sugar as above with about two ounces of water, flavored with a few drops of peppermint essence, to form into a paste; heat it the same as for the strawberry drops, only warming it rather more, and finish exactly the same.

← No. 3646 Drops Candies & Bonbons No. 3648 Strawberry Drops →

For the Modern Kitchen

A two-line entry that only makes sense read alongside its neighbours: Ranhofer expects you to have No. 3646 and No. 3648 open in front of you, since both the sugar and the method are borrowed from them. What follows is a warm fondant piped into coin-sized drops, not a boiled hard candy.

"The same sugar as above"This points back to the preceding drop recipes for the sugar, which is not specified here. A fine sifted sugar is what the method implies; coarse granulated sugar is unlikely to dissolve fully in so little water at low heat.
The weightsSeven ounces of sugar is about 1 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar; two ounces of water is 1/4 cup. This is a working ratio rather than a fixed one — the paste should be thick but still able to run from a spoon or paper cone.
Warm, never boilWarm, not boil -- The instruction is to heat the paste, and then only "rather more" than for the strawberry drops; nothing in the text calls for a boil. Gentle heat, just enough to make the paste flow, is what the method implies.
"Warming it rather more"The only adjustment Ranhofer specifies for the mint version. He gives no temperature and no reason for it; the wording suggests a small increase rather than a different stage of cooking.
Peppermint essenceThe recipe asks only for "a few drops." Modern peppermint extract is potent, so start with two or three drops in this quantity, taste the cold paste, and adjust before it goes on the heat.
Forming the dropsThe recipe defers to the strawberry drops for the finishing, which is to drop the paste from a paper cone or small spoon onto paper. Work quickly, since the paste stiffens in the vessel as it cools.
Drying and yieldDrying -- Leave the drops until the surface is firm and no longer tacky, then store them airtight. The recipe specifies neither a drying time nor a yield.

A Little History

Pastilles de menthe arrived on the confectioner's bench from the apothecary's: peppermint lozenges were sold through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a digestive and a breath sweetener, and the drop form — sugar paste dried on paper rather than a boiled sweet — is the same technology used for medicinal pastilles. By the time Charles Ranhofer compiled The Epicurean (1894) out of his decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, mint drops belonged squarely to the dessert service, part of the tray of small sweets that closed a long dinner. The terseness is characteristic of the book's candy chapter, which gives little more than the flavouring and the one adjustment in temperature.