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Sauce

Mint Sauce with Oil

A simple mint sauce made with fresh mint, sugar, salt, pepper, vinegar, and olive oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,372 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mint Sauce with Oil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the mint finely.

  2. Mix the chopped mint with sugar, salt, and pepper.

Make the sauce

  1. Add vinegar and olive oil, then stir well.

Serve

  1. Serve with roast lamb, veal, or pork.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Pepper + olivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 aroma and flavour of the sauce.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with sweetness.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its sharp, tangy character.
Olive oil
Adds fat and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Basilfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, 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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