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Sauce

English Mint Sauce

A condiment made by infusing mint leaves with sugar and vinegar, then straining.

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 ↓

English Mint Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop or mince the fresh mint leaves finely.

  2. Place the mint in a bowl and cover with sugar.

  3. Let it stand overnight.

Steep and store

  1. Add the vinegar.

  2. Let it stand all day.

  3. It is ready for use.

  4. You can strain the vinegar if you prefer.

  5. Store in bottles; it will keep for a long time.

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 leaves
Provides the main herbal aroma and flavour of the sauce.
Sugar
Draws moisture out of the mint and sweetens the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidity softens the mint and gives the sauce its sharp, tangy character.

The step that matters

Letting the mint stand overnight in sugar. Sugar draws water out of the chopped mint, dissolving into a syrup that carries its flavour. Skipping this rest leaves the mint raw and the sauce thin in taste.

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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