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Mint-sauce

A condiment made from fresh mint, sugar, and clear vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mint-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mint

  1. Strip the leaves from the mint, retaining the tender tips.

  2. Gather the leaves and tips into an even bunch and slice them into fine shreds with a small, sharp knife. Cut the shreds into the finest bits.

Make the sauce

  1. In a bowl, mix the chopped mint with an equal quantity of sugar and mash together until the mint juice partially dissolves the sugar. Stir in the clear vinegar.

  2. Store the mint sauce in a stopped glass jar.

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 + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Mint + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mint + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fresh mint
Provides the main herbal flavour and aroma of the sauce.
Sugar
Sweetens the sauce and, dissolved in mint juice, balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Clear vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its sharp, tangy bite.

The step that matters

Mashing the mint with sugar. Mashing breaks the mint cells so their juice partially dissolves the sugar, creating a syrup that carries the flavour. Cutting the mint very fine releases more juice and aroma, so the sugar dissolves more evenly before the vinegar is added.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Peppermintfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar. 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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