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Mint Sauce

A condiment of mint, sugar, salt, pepper, and vinegar served with roast lamb.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Chop the mint finely.

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

  3. Rub the mixture well while gradually adding the vinegar.

Serve

  1. Serve with roast lamb.

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

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

  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.
Sugar
Sweetness balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Acidity sharpens the flavour and lightly softens the chopped mint.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mint with sugar and salt while adding vinegar. Rubbing breaks down the mint leaves and draws out their juices, so the sugar and salt dissolve into the mixture. Adding the vinegar gradually lets the sugar dissolve fully and keeps the sauce from tasting harsh or unevenly seasoned.

Swap the mint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, 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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