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Mint Sauce
Wash and free from grit three table-spoonfuls of young green mint, chop exceedingly fine, and put it in a sauce-tureen, with two table-spoonfuls of powdered lump sugar and a tea-cupful of vinegar. Mint sauce should be allowed to stand an hour or two before being used. Some persons prefer moist sugar for sweetening; in that case so large a quantity would not be required. Probable cost, 3d.
A three-ingredient sauce whose only real variables are the cut of the mint and the strength of the vinegar. Both need attention if it is not to taste like sweetened pickle brine.
- The teacupfulA Victorian tea-cup is roughly 5 to 6 fl oz, so about two-thirds of a cup of vinegar to three tablespoons of chopped mint. That is a loose, pourable sauce rather than the thick paste sold in jars.
- Vinegar strengthThe vinegar in a British source of this date would most likely have been malt, around 5 per cent acidity, though the recipe does not specify. Modern distilled white vinegar is harsher and flatter; cider or a mild malt suits lamb better, and the vinegar can be cut with a spoonful or two of hot water to take the edge off.
- Powdered lump sugarLump sugar was loaf sugar broken up and crushed at home, so "powdered" means what we would call caster or superfine sugar. Granulated works but wants a few minutes of stirring to dissolve fully.
- Moist sugarThe alternative mentioned is moist or soft brown sugar, which is damper and denser than crushed loaf sugar and carries some molasses flavour. The recipe says only that less would be needed, so reduce it and taste; expect a darker, rounder sauce.
- Chop, do not bruise'Exceedingly fine' matters more than it sounds. A sharp knife and a single decisive chopping session keeps the leaves green; sawing at them or using a blender bruises the leaves and darkens the sauce.
- The standing timeThe hour or two is the hinge of the recipe. It dissolves the sugar and draws the mint oils into the vinegar. Left much longer the leaves lose colour, so make it the same day.
- YieldEnough for six to eight servings alongside roast lamb. It keeps a couple of days refrigerated, though the colour dulls.
Mint with lamb is one of the oldest surviving English pairings, and the sweet-sour form here belongs to a much older family of medieval sauces in which vinegar, sugar and a green herb stood in for the acidity a modern cook might get from lemon or wine. Mint was among the commonest kitchen-garden herbs in Victorian Britain, spreading freely and costing nothing to a household with a yard, which is why Cassell's can quote the whole sauce at threepence. The note about moist sugar reflects a period when sugar came in several distinct forms with different prices and textures: hard loaf sugar, which had to be nipped and crushed before use, and cheaper soft brown sugars. The choice between them was as much about the budget as the palate.