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Salad

Mint Sauce

A condiment made from chopped mint, powdered sugar, vinegar, and optional olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,240 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mint Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Combine the chopped mint and powdered sugar in a bowl.

  2. Add the boiling hot vinegar and mix well.

Rest and serve

  1. Let the mixture stand for 1 hour before serving.

  2. If desired, add a few drops of olive oil 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.

  1. Mint + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,240 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Vinegar + olivetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,297 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. 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 fresh, herbal aroma and flavour that defines the sauce.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves quickly into the hot vinegar, balancing its sharpness.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and, while hot, softens the mint.

The step that matters

Add the boiling hot vinegar and mix well. The hot vinegar dissolves the powdered sugar and softens the raw mint, helping its flavour blend into the liquid. Mixing thoroughly ensures the sugar and mint are evenly distributed through the sauce.

Swap the mint

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

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

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