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Mint Sauce with Mint & Vinegar
Take the leaves off a small bunch of mint, chop them, add a tablespoonful of sugar and only enough vinegar to make a thick sauce. Let stand several hours before serving.
An uncooked sauce that depends entirely on proportion, since the original gives no quantity for the vinegar. A few notes on getting the balance right.
- Quantities in practiceA small bunch of mint might yield something like 1/2 cup of loosely packed leaves, perhaps 3 tablespoons once chopped. With the tablespoon of sugar called for, 2 to 3 tablespoons of vinegar will give roughly the "thick sauce" described; much more and it becomes a thin dressing.
- The vinegar mattersMalt vinegar is the traditional British choice and the least harsh here; cider vinegar also suits. Distilled white vinegar is sharp enough to flatten the mint. Note that vinegar strength was not standardised in the period, so the amount needed will vary.
- Chop, do not bruiseUse a sharp knife and cut cleanly rather than pounding. Crushed mint turns dark and grassy; cleanly cut leaves stay green and keep the volatile oils in the sauce rather than on the board.
- Why it must standThe several hours are not padding. Sugar and vinegar need that time to draw the mint oils out and soften the raw edge of the acid. An hour is the workable minimum; overnight in the refrigerator is better.
- Dissolving the sugarGranulated sugar dissolves slowly in cold vinegar; the several hours of standing will usually do it if the sauce is stirred once or twice. If you want it dissolved at once, stir the sugar into a tablespoon of boiling water first, let it cool, then add the mint and vinegar.
- Yield and servingMakes roughly 1/3 cup, enough for four to six servings.
- KeepingCovered and refrigerated it holds two or three days. The mint darkens after that, and the flavor turns from fresh to medicinal, so it is worth making in small batches.
Mint with lamb is an English habit of long standing, and mint sauce as a sugar-and-vinegar preparation was well established in British cookery by the eighteenth century, when it appeared in print alongside roast and boiled mutton. It is a survival of the older European taste for sweet-sour sauces with meat, most of which faded out of English cooking; mint sauce and applesauce are among the few that stayed. Uncooked relishes like this one, along with mustards and bottled sauces, were the standard answer.