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Mint Sauce

A condiment made from chopped mint, sugar, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Spearmint and cider work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Mint Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Strip the mint leaves from the stems and wash or dry them on a cloth.

  2. Chop the mint leaves very finely and place them in a gravy boat.

Make the sauce

  1. Add 3 tablespoons of white sugar to the chopped mint and mix well.

  2. Pour 6 tablespoons of cider vinegar or white wine vinegar over the mixture.

  3. Let the sauce sit for a few minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

  4. Prepare the sauce ahead of time for the best flavor, especially 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. Spearmint + cidertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Sugar + cidertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Spearmint + sugartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fresh young spearmint leaves
Provide the main fresh mint aroma and flavor of the sauce.
White sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar and softens the bitterness of the mint.
Cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the sauce its tang and draws out the mint flavor.

The step that matters

Letting the sauce sit. Resting lets the sugar dissolve and the mint's flavor oils spread into the vinegar, so the sauce tastes blended rather than sharp. Skipping the rest leaves the flavors separate and harsher.

Swap the spearmint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Spearmintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cider. 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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