Name: Mint Sauce
Ingredients: 4 teaspoons chopped mint; 2 teaspoons powdered white sugar; ¼ cup vinegar

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

4 teaspoons chopped mint
2 teaspoons powdered white sugar
¼ cup vinegar

Directions

Prepare the mint

Wash the mint, ensuring it is young and freshly gathered.
Pick the leaves from the stalks and mince them very finely.

Make the sauce

Place the minced mint in a bowl, add the sugar and vinegar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Prepare this mixture 2-3 hours before serving.

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.

Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Mint + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,376 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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

Mint: Provides the main fresh, aromatic flavour of the sauce.
Powdered white sugar: Sweetens the sauce and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and keeps the sauce bright.