Mint Sauce
Four dessertspoonfuls of chopped mint, two dessertspoonfuls of sugar, and half a pint of vinegar. Use only young, fresh leaves, pick them all off the stalk, mince very fine and pour over them the sugar and vinegar. Make two or three hours before serving. Add more sugar if liked.
An uncooked sauce that needs nothing but sharp knife work and a couple of hours' standing. The only real decisions are the measure of the spoon and the strength of the vinegar.
- DessertspoonfulA dessertspoon sits between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, roughly two teaspoons. Four of them is about 8 teaspoons of chopped mint, some 2 2/3 tablespoons; two is about 4 teaspoons of sugar.
- Half a pintAn Imperial half pint is 10 fl oz; an American half pint is 8 fl oz. Either works, but the smaller measure gives a sauce with more mint per spoonful.
- The vinegar is the variablePeriod malt and cider vinegars were not standardised and their strength varied against today's 5-6% supermarket bottles. Taste before it stands, and cut with a little water if it strips the mint flavour out; malt or cider vinegar suits this better than distilled white.
- Chop, do not bruiseMince the leaves with a sharp knife in one direction rather than rocking through them repeatedly, and never in a food processor. Crushed mint turns muddy brown and bitter in acid.
- Dissolve the sugar firstStirring the sugar into the vinegar until it has gone clear, then pouring over the mint, avoids gritty sugar sitting in the bottom of the jug two hours later.
- The two or three hours matterThe standing time is what turns vinegar and leaves into a sauce; served immediately it tastes of raw vinegar with green flecks in it. Beyond about a day the mint darkens and the flavour flattens, so make it the same day.
- Yield and servingAbout a cup, or a little more if the Imperial half pint is used, enough for six to eight servings. Serve cool, not chilled, in a small jug or boat alongside roast lamb or mutton; the quantity here is deliberately thin and pourable rather than the thick jarred paste.
- Why it sits under GameBeyond lamb -- The same sauce is used with strong-flavoured roasts generally. If the meat is very lean, a spoonful of the pan juices stirred in at the table softens the acidity.
Mint with lamb is one of the oldest surviving English pairings, and the vinegar-and-sugar form printed here is often said to descend from the sharp herb sauces of eighteenth-century household books, where such a sauce was expected to cut the fat of a mutton roast much as a fruit sauce cut pork or goose. The combination is often traced to the medieval and early modern taste for sweet-sour sauces built on vinegar or verjuice, which mostly disappeared from English cooking but persisted in this one dish. Mint sauce was the standard accompaniment for any strong roast, and spearmint is a herb with a reputation for spreading faster than anyone wanted it to.