How do I make mint sauce for lamb?

British mint sauce is a sharp, thin condiment rather than a jelly or a dip, and the point of it is to cut the richness of lamb. It takes five minutes, and the two things people get wrong are drowning it in vinegar and chopping the mint too far in advance so it blackens.

What you'll need

• Fresh mint
• Caster sugar
• Malt or white wine vinegar
• Boiling water

Step by step

1. Pick the leaves and discard the stalks.A large handful — about 20g of leaves — for four people. Stalks are fibrous and bitter. Spearmint is the traditional variety; peppermint is too strong and tastes of toothpaste.
2. Chop the mint with the sugar.A teaspoon of caster sugar on the board with the leaves. The sugar acts as an abrasive and helps break the leaves down, and it stops them bruising to a paste under the knife. Chop finely but do not pulverise.
3. Pour over two tablespoons of boiling water and stir.This dissolves the sugar completely and, more importantly, softens the mint and draws its flavour out. Skipping it gives a sauce with hard flecks of raw mint sitting in vinegar.
4. Add the vinegar once the mixture has cooled slightly.Three tablespoons of malt vinegar for the traditional version, or white wine vinegar for a softer one. Add it after the water, not before — hot vinegar is unpleasantly sharp in the nose and the acid sets the mint's colour before it has softened.
5. Rest it for at least half an hour before serving.The flavour needs time to come out of the leaves. Straight after mixing it tastes mainly of vinegar; after half an hour it tastes of mint.
6. Taste and adjust the balance.It should be sharp but not eye-watering, with enough sugar to round it off. More water if it is too fierce, a pinch more sugar if it is harsh, more vinegar if it tastes flat. A pinch of salt helps.

Tips

• Make it an hour ahead, not a day ahead. It is at its best the same day and the colour dulls to brown-green after twenty-four hours, though the flavour holds for about a week in the fridge.
• A sharp knife matters. A blunt one bruises the leaves and turns them black.
• Mint is a rampant spreader in a garden and one plant in a pot will supply a household. If you have a glut, salsa verde and mint jelly use far more than mint sauce does.
• Malt vinegar is the traditional British choice and it is assertive. Cider or white wine vinegar makes a gentler sauce that suits spring lamb better.
• Do not blend it. A blender turns it into a dark green purée, which is a different sauce.

Alternatives

• Mint jelly: A set apple or redcurrant jelly with mint through it. Sweeter and thicker, and it clings to the meat rather than running. Traditional in some households and sold widely.
• Mint and yoghurt sauce: Chopped mint, natural yoghurt, a little lemon, garlic and salt. Closer to a raita, excellent with grilled lamb, kebabs and roast aubergine. Keeps two days.
• Salsa verde: Mint blended with parsley, capers, anchovy, garlic, mustard and olive oil. A far more substantial sauce for lamb, and one of the best uses for a mint glut.
• Bought mint sauce, improved: A jar of mint sauce with a handful of fresh chopped mint and a pinch of sugar stirred through it is a great deal better than the jar alone and takes two minutes.

Questions people ask