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Mint Sauce

A vinegar-based sauce of mint leaves and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Vinegar and sugar 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 ↓

Mint Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strip the leaves from the mint stems, wash, and drain them.

  2. Chop the mint leaves very fine and place them in a sauce tureen.

Make the sauce

  1. Add 2 tablespoons of pounded sugar to the chopped mint and mix well.

  2. Gradually pour in 6 tablespoons of good vinegar while mixing.

  3. Let the mixture sit for 1-2 hours to allow the flavors to meld.

  4. If desired, strain the sauce after it has stood, pressing to extract all the flavor.

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. Vinegar + sugartop 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 young mint leaves
Provide the primary aromatic flavor and green herbal character of the sauce.
Good vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the sauce and balances the sugar.
Pounded sugar
Sweetens the sauce and softens the sharpness of the vinegar.

The step that matters

Letting the mixture stand. Resting allows the mint's flavor to infuse into the vinegar and sugar syrup, so the sauce tastes fully developed rather than raw and harsh. Sugar must dissolve in the vinegar first, so mixing well before resting matters.

Swap the mint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar. 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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