Throwback Thursday: Lamb with mint, two ways

Old recipes come and old recipes go, sometimes with relief, at other times regretfully. But when a recipe just keeps hanging around, enduring the slings and arrows of those who cannot live without change, and surviving competition from anything from bao to banting, there’s usually a good reason for it. One of the best examples of the latter is the old English tradition of roast lamb and mint sauce, often served for Sunday lunch.

And the reason, it is posited, why lamb and mint sauce just will not leave the culinary stage is: science.

Cook’s Illustrated shares the results of a scientific investigation into why certain foods seem to pair so well with others. The results, with regard to lamb and mint sauce, are fascinating.

In essence (a very good choice of word in this instance), it is explained, certain foods make others they are matched with taste even better. This is undeniably true of roast lamb and mint sauce. The perk of the herby flavour of mint with its aniseed spike, the tang of vinegar and the sweetness of sugar work a minor miracle when eaten with a succulent morsel of roast lamb. And the mint, when eaten with salted lamb with its caramelised exterior, somehow becomes more of itself.

Cook’s Illustrated points out, first, that roast lamb “has a flavour unlike any other cooked meat, distinguished by the release of volatile aroma compounds in the fat during cooking. The majority of these compounds are branched-chain fatty acids (BCFAs).”

Mint, meanwhile, “is rich with branched-chain ketones, which are chemically related to lamb’s BCFAs and have similar, though not identical, aromas. This means, according to the theory of food pairing, that lamb and mint are a scientific match. They add that the dominant flavour compounds in mint are not found in other herbs, such as tarragon or basil.”

Scientists, who aren’t always quite this interesting when discussing foods, add: “In addition, researchers have found another interesting compound in lamb that originates from the animal’s diet. This compound, called 2,3-octanedione, is formed when the lamb consumes fresh clover and ryegrass. It is stored in the lamb’s fat and, according to this theory, chemically bridges the gap between the BCFAs and the branched-chain ketones, with a similar sweet, fruity aroma that complements the aroma of mint.”

Of course, in the Karoo they will be eating karoobossies such as kapokbos (wild rosemary).

The British tradition of mint sauce is thought to go back to mediaeval times, with one supposition being that Queen Elizabeth I issued a decree that lamb and mutton be eaten with bitter herbs, in an attempt to curb consumption and protect the wool trade. Crafty cooks began making a sweetened mint sauce to curb the supposed bitterness of mint.

Today, sometimes a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon juice is added. In others, different types of vinegar are employed. Some are even finished with cream. But lamb (I must protest) does not benefit from cream.

There are pockets of wry observation and insight into the mint sauce tradition that go back generations.

The Book of Household Management, edited by Isabella Beeton (1861) carried a recipe for “MINT SAUCE, to serve with Roast Lamb”:

Ingredients. - 4 dessertspoonfuls of chopped mint, 2 dessertspoonfuls of pounded white sugar, 1/4 pint of vinegar.

Mode. - Wash the mint, which should be young and fresh-gathered, free from grit; pick the leaves from the stalks, mince them very fine, and put them into a tureen; add the sugar and vinegar, and stir till the former is dissolved. This sauce is better by being made 2 or 3 hours before being wanted for the table, as the vinegar then becomes impregnated with the flavour of the mint. By many persons, the above proportion of sugar would not be considered sufficient; but as tastes vary, we have given the quantity which we have found to suit the general palate.

Average cost, 3d.

Sufficient to serve with a middling-sized joint of lamb.

Note. - Where green mint is scarce and not obtainable, mint vinegar may be substituted for it, and will be found very acceptable in early spring.

At the Time of Year when House-Lamb’s very dear, take the Hind Quarter of a large Pig, take off the skin, and roast it, and it will eat like Lamb, with Mint-Sauce, or with a Sallad, or Seville Oranges.”

Mint Sauce.

Wash your mint perfectly clean from grit or dirt, then chop it very fine, and put to it vinegar and sugar.

“2 T of finely chopped mint leaves, 1T of granulated sugar (American) or castor sugar (British), and 6 T vinegar. After mixing the mint and sugar, the mixture must sit for an hour; then the vinegar can be added gradually, mixing well between each addition.

Tony Jackman’s traditional British roast leg of lamb, served with mint sauce. Inset: Mint sauce, homemade. (Photos: Tony Jackman)

Homemade mint sauce. (Photo: Tony Jackman)