Name: Mint Sauce , for Roast Lamb
Ingredients: fresh mint leaves; vinegar; powdered sugar

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 , for Roast Lamb

Ingredients

fresh mint leaves
vinegar
powdered sugar

Directions

Pick the leaves off the stalks and wash them carefully.
Dry the leaves and chop them quickly with a sharp knife to preserve their green color.
Place the chopped mint in a serving dish.
Add enough vinegar to make the mixture liquid.
Stir in powdered sugar to balance the acidity of the vinegar.

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.

Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Mint + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,376 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mint + sugartop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,592 recipes

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