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Sauce

Mint Sauce

A vinegar-based sauce flavored with mint, brown sugar, salt, and pepper.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the mint leaves thoroughly and chop them very fine.

  2. Mix the chopped mint with the brown sugar and salt, rubbing them together well to release the mint's flavor.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the vinegar and black pepper, then let the mixture stand in a cool place for 15 minutes before using.

  2. 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. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Vinegar + minttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + minttop 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 leaves
Provide the main fresh herbal aroma and flavor of the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps draw flavor out of the chopped mint.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mint with sugar and salt. Rubbing the chopped mint with sugar and salt breaks down its cell walls so more flavor is released. Skipping or rushing this leaves the sauce tasting weak and grassy. Letting the sauce stand afterward lets the flavors blend.

Swap the mint

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, pepper. 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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