66
votes
Accepted
Mint vs Peppermint
Peppermint is a hybrid breed of two plants belonging to the mint genus, spearmint and watermint. In my experience, when 'mint' is referred to by itself without any other descriptors, it usually refers ...
- 465
49
votes
Can I dissolve mint in water and drink it?
No, mint won't dissolve in water (leaves are mostly cellulose), but it does make excellent tea.
Boiling water, steep 5-6 minutes.
For best results, I recommending purchasing whole leaf mint intended ...
- 1,907
35
votes
Is there a Scoville scale for "coldness" (e.g. mint)?
There are thermal sensation scales, and they are applied in food research too, although their primary use tends to be focused on clothing or environment. They tend to be categorical rather than ratio ...
- 137k
27
votes
Do I need to rip the leaves off mint?
You probably don't need to remove the stalks from the leaves, especially for young plants. However, the older and stronger the stalk becomes, the less appetizing it will be, in my opinion.
To rip the ...
- 3,518
22
votes
Can I dissolve mint in water and drink it?
Mint leaves, and plant matter in general, won’t dissolve in water no matter how finely you grind them. They are largely made of substances which are simply not (very) soluble in water. At best you’ll ...
- 26.9k
21
votes
What type of mint in tzatziki?
The standard "mint" is spearmint, and peppermint would usually be called "peppermint". You wouldn't want to blend peppermint into any kind of sauce, it's much too strong for that.
- 2,288
17
votes
Can I dissolve mint in water and drink it?
You have several options for mint-flavored water, and none of them includes dissolving dried mint leaves in it. As others said, leaves don't dissolve in water (plants would be in a lot of trouble if ...
- 137k
16
votes
Accepted
What type of mint in tzatziki?
It refers to spearmint in this case.
You can find both spearmint (Mentha spicata, known in Greek as δυόσμος) and peppermint (Mentha × piperita, generally known as μέντα, though that may be used for ...
- 1,677
12
votes
Do I need to rip the leaves off mint?
It depends on your mint, and even the time of year. I grow mint in a pot in the garden, and the early growth of the year can be chopped (finely) stems and all for things like potato salad or falafel. ...
- 43.8k
11
votes
Difference between tzatziki and Indian mint dip (mint chutney?)
As far as I'm aware, the traditional Greek tzatziki doesn't generally include mint at all.
It's a cucumber dip that is made of yogurt and sometimes includes dill or mint as a flavoring:
Tzatziki (...
- 16.5k
9
votes
Time effective technique for separating mint leaves from stems
Hold the stalk by the tip of the steam and then run your forefinger and thumb down the stalk. You can then just pinch the soft top leaves off and add them to the pile.
E.g. in this youtube video
...
- 722
9
votes
Time effective technique for separating mint leaves from stems
Separating the leaves of mint from the stem is only necessary if the stem is woody, which partly depends on the variety and age of the mint. The stems of young mint shoots on most varieties of plant ...
- 75.4k
7
votes
How to stop mint flavor dying when cooking?
While it is true that the mint flavor will fade with cooking, it is still there to some degree. I bet you would be able to identify the difference if you left it out. However, whenever you want to ...
- 73.8k
7
votes
Difference between tzatziki and Indian mint dip (mint chutney?)
Mint chutney is normally almost all herbs (mint and cilantro), and it's ground/blended so it's completely green:
(from this mint chutney recipe)
I can't really see the chutney/dip in your picture ...
- 58.2k
6
votes
Accepted
How to make mint syrup with minimum water?
Well - not exactly. The reason that this technique works with lemons is that they actually do contain quite a bit of water. It's not so much "water-free" as it is using the residual water from the ...
- 14.9k
5
votes
Is there a Scoville scale for "coldness" (e.g. mint)?
Scoville's original method for determinig the Scoville level of a pepper was to dry the pepper, extract the heat components, and continunally dilute the extract until the majority of a panel of ...
- 126
5
votes
Can I dissolve mint in water and drink it?
In pure water, no plant matter will actually dissolve. You can get close by forming a suspension (this is how green tea made using matcha is made, as well as hot cocoa), but it will not actually ...
- 1,677
5
votes
Accepted
Is "mintiness" a well-defined thing?
The mints in general - spearmint and peppermint - have the cooling mouthfeel associated to ligants to CRM1 (now named TRPM8) receptors. The various nuances in flavor are given by other molecules, like ...
- 2,848
4
votes
What type of mint are mint leaves from supermarkets?
It is whatever they had on hand. There seems to be a statistically higher chance to get spearmint, but they sell other mints too. From the point of view of the supermarket, the ambiguity is not a bug, ...
- 137k
4
votes
My mint tea tastes like a weed
Check your mint, as not all mints taste good.
Avoid Orange Mint, which smells minty and tastes like orange-zested peppermint dirt.
Chocolate mint? Not in tea, either.
A similar fooler is the wine-...
- 141
3
votes
How can I extract menthol powder from fresh mint/peppermint?
One option would be to make a syrup.
Heating water and sugar with the mint, and straining the mint leaves out would be enough to make a simple syrup - altering the ratio of sugar to water will ...
- 11.8k
3
votes
How can I extract menthol powder from fresh mint/peppermint?
This is a fun question, but your plan is not very practical.
If you indeed insist on doing it, you have three steps in the process of menthol extraction:
Extract the essential oil from the leaves
...
- 137k
3
votes
Accepted
Storing lemon juice with crushed mint
I'd make it into ice cubes.
They'd add decorative interest too.
Fridge, maybe a week, freezer, more like 6 months.
There's a full list of storage times in How long can I store a food in the pantry, ...
- 29.7k
3
votes
what are the Cheap substitute of menthol that can be used in mint?
There are absolutely no substitutes, neither cheap nor expensive.
First, the cooling effect is due to a very rare coincidence. It so happens that menthol is chemically capable of activating one of ...
- 137k
3
votes
What's the proper way to muddle mint for a julep or mojito?
Actually the right way to make a mojito is bruising the mint.
A lot of bartenders just use a couple of stalks of mint and slap it. Mint (as some other herbs) have microscopic hair, which releases the ...
3
votes
Can I dissolve mint in water and drink it?
You can grind dried mint in any blender or food processor.
You don't need a particularily good blender, as long as the mint is dry enough you should end up with something similar to Matcha Tea, maybe ...
- 31
2
votes
How to make mint syrup with minimum water?
My preferred method would be to juice the mint in one of those juicers meant for wheat grass which can get a ton of moisture even from a dryish plant, then use this juice pure or dissolved in sugar.
...
- 137k
2
votes
Preventing discoloration when making fresh mint liqueur
Idea 1: Assuming the leaves are oxidizing: you could add an antioxidant. Vitamin C is handy and will scrounge up oxygen radicals. Crush up some pills and shake them in. It will make it a little ...
- 6,626
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