Mint Condition!

Everything you ever wanted to know about mint in Britain and Germany.

I often wonder why the British are so obsessed with mint. Is it simply because no other herb can cope better with the damp climate and heavy soil? Or is it because it helps digest the traditional Sunday roast, complete with Yorkshire puddings and gravy?

Whatever the reason, the amount of mint-related products in the UK is breathtaking, quite literally in some cases! (I never could get used to Fisherman’s Friends.) Apart from breath mints, there are pillow mints, after dinner mints, mint chocolates, mint cookies, mint chocolate cookies (getting cravings here), mint tea, mint humbugs, mint chewing-gum, mint ice cream, mint soap, mint jelly and of course mint sauce. 

Mint – sauce?!

While mint sweets, mint ice cream and mint tea are common in Germany, too, mint sauce never fails to raise a few eyebrows. What, you put mint on meat? Like in ‘Asterix in Britain’? Hmm. Well, the sauce actually tastes quite nice, but it’s sweet, so surely that doesn’t go with meat?
At that point, I always make the mistake of urging my guests to try just a little bit. And then they’re hooked, and before you know it, the four jars that were supposed to last through the entire three days of Christmas (yep, that’s a German thing) are just about gone! This year, I actually made a whole batch myself, to make sure there would be enough for everybody.

I’ll share my recipe with you in a minute!

Mint tea time

In Germany, mint is most commonly consumed as mint tea. If you ever stay at a hospital, youth hostel or retirement home in Germany, you’ll probably be served mint tea (Pfefferminztee) at dinnertime. I personally don’t know anyone who still has mint tea with their dinner at home, this is something my grandma used to do, but the tradition is still alive in these places. 

The reason is probably that mint is supposed to be good for your digestive system. When I was a kid, my mum used to make mint tea when I had a stomach bug and it always made me feel better – though I can’t honestly say whether that was because of the healing properties of mint or the lovely feeling of being looked after. Still today, when I have mint tea, I feel instantly comforted, much like many British people when someone offers ‘a nice cup of tea, love’. 😊

More about mint

There is one other thing Germans associate with mint, although it has nothing to do with the plant: the acronym ‘MINT’, which is short for ‘Mathematik, Informatik, Naturwissenschaften und Technik’ – the German equivalent to STEM. 

And of course, the English term ‘mint condition’ has nothing to do with green leaves or fresh breath! A ‘mint’ is a place where coins are, well, ‘minted’ – ‘Prägeanstalt’ is the German translation. Notice the similarity between ‘mint’ and ‘Münze’, German for ‘coin’? So if something is in mint condition, it’s as new as a coin that has just left the mint.

But now, let’s get to that recipe!

How to make mint sauce

Why am I even making it instead of just buying some from the shop?

Like many other delicious British essentials, mint sauce it not that easy to come by in Germany. You can order it from several different places, but if you like it as much as I do, it gets expensive after a while. Also, I still had several planters full of mint in our garden and I had already dried enough mint to cater for our mint tea needs for the next couple of years. (Thankfully, our kids don’t get stomach bugs very often.)

Plus, I enjoy cooking and trying out different recipes! This is an adjusted version of one that I found in an old British cookbook.

This is what you need for eleven small jars of mint sauce: 

  • 4 cups (roughly 680 ml) of ‘finely chopped mint’
  • 750 ml vinegar
  • 1 kg sugar
  • a pinch of salt

And yes, ‘cup’ is one of those units I still have to look up every time.

I love how much meaning is condensed in this innocent-looking participle phrase: It took me and the kids over an hour to produce 4 cups of ‘finely chopped mint’ and my hands were still aching days later! Also, I hadn’t realised that mint can stain your hands quite badly, so you might want to wear gloves while chopping. Only use the leaves, the stems are too tough.

Put vinegar, sugar and salt into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the mint, let the mixture simmer for a bit and then transfer to sterilised jars. That’s it!

(Though ‘sterilised jars’ is another case of condensed meaning. If you’ve made jam before, you’ll know what I mean.)

So, how did it turn out? To be honest: Absolutely delicious! It will need stirring because I didn’t add any stabilisers, but I don’t mind that. It’s the best mint sauce I’ve ever had, it was easy to make, cost next to nothing – and it should see us through the holidays!

Tell me: What do you like to have with mint sauce? And if you are a Brit living abroad, which foods do you miss most?

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