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Herbal Cough Drop Recipe

Homemade cough drops are a great way to tailor your family's cough and cold treatment and add a personal touch to speeding recovery. Herbal cough drops are also a healthful and tasty treat for kids and adults to enjoy, whether or not they are suffering from a cough or sore throat. A few basic strategies will help you make the most of your herbal cough drop recipe and ensure that your cough drops are a success.

  1. Herbal Ingredients

    • While many different types of herbs can be used in an herbal candy or herbal cough drop recipe, choose herbs that are known for the antibacterial qualities, pain relief or respiratory aid they provide. Some common choices for herbal cough drops are horehound, elderberries, peppermint, sage, ginger and thyme. You can also use a combination of herbs to achieve an herbal blend to soothe a sore throat and facilitate easy breathing.

      The herbs in an herbal cough drop recipe should be used to make an infusion or tea, brewing the herbs in hot water and then straining the herbs out. The water is what should be used to actually make the cough drops, while the herbs can be thrown out.

    Other Ingredients

    • Herbal cough drops are condensed herbal syrups, the primary ingredient of which is typically honey or brown sugar. Any type of sugar can be used, and sugar works better than honey for creating hard candy. The mixture will need to be cooked until most of the water has evaporated to form a thick syrup, which will harden into herbal cough drops as it cools. A thickening agent, such as cream of tartar, can be added to facilitate hardening but is not required.

    Cooking Confections

    • Like any candy, homemade cough drops require careful attention when cooking. Boil your herbal infusion and sugar mixture to form syrup, then use a candy thermometer to bring the herbal syrup to 300 degrees. The candy should form a hard ball when dropped into cold water.

    Making the Cough Drops

    • Homemade cough drops can be made from the condensed herbal syrup either by pulling the condensed syrup and rolling into balls left to cool on a cookie sheet or by pouring the syrup into a shallow pan and cutting the cough drops after the syrup hardens. In either method, either grease the pan or line the pan with parchment paper to easily remove the herbal cough drops once they're cool. Dust the finished product with powdered sugar to make the surface less sticky. You can also use nonstick or silicon molds specifically designed for confection making, and simply remove each individual cough drop from the pan after cooling.

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