Name: Mint Sauce
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon white sugar; 1 cup lemon juice; finely chopped mint

Why it works: Lemon and mint 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

1 tablespoon white sugar
1 cup lemon juice
finely chopped mint

Directions

Mix the white sugar with the lemon juice.
Add the finely chopped mint.
Serve with green peas and other vegetables.

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.

Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,998 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + minttop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,592 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and lemon 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

White sugar: Balances the sharpness of the lemon juice with a touch of sweetness.
Lemon juice: Provides acidity that brightens the flavor and sharpens the mint.
Mint: Supplies the fresh, aromatic flavor that defines the sauce.