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Mint Sauce

A tart condiment made with mint, lemon rind, vinegar, lemon juice, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,998 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mint Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a sauce-tureen, combine the chopped mint and lemon rind.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the vinegar and lemon juice.

  3. Add finely powdered sugar to the vinegar mixture until it dissolves.

Steep and serve

  1. Pour the solution over the mint and lemon in the tureen.

  2. Let it stand for about an hour.

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. Mint + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Lemon + vinegartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,334 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 aroma and flavour of the sauce.
Lemon rind
Adds aromatic oils and bright citrus flavour to the sauce.
French vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that gives the sauce its tang.
Lemon juice
Adds further acidity and fresh citrus brightness.
Loaf sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.

The step that matters

Dissolving the sugar fully before pouring. Sugar dissolves much more readily in a liquid than in a solid mix, so adding it to the vinegar and lemon juice first ensures an evenly sweetened sauce rather than gritty pockets of sugar.

Swap the mint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, vinegar, sugar. 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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