Monday, June 11, 2012

Canning English Mint Sauce Straight from the Garden


Mint is growing like wildfire in my front yard... I grabbed some tools from the garden sheds and snipped off the above bounty and you can hardly tell I touched it. The rest of the mint will continue to grow for other recipes on another day but for today this will be more than enough.

I used my harvest to make Traditional English Mint Sauce... delicious served with lamb or pork dishes.

Here's what I did...

I gathered the mint... loads of it! I washed it well, then removed the leaves from the stems, discarding the stems and any yellowed or brown leaves.


I finely chopped 4 cups of freshly washed fresh mint leaves... OK I STARTED finely chopping 4 cups of mint leaves and realized that when finely chopped, mint leaves will take FOREVER to accumulate to 4 cups... so...

I used my blender and some of the vinegar called for in the recipe... if you're a purist, feel free to hand chop... I had Season 2 of Downton Abbey on DVD to watch and wanted to get finished in time to watch an episode or two before bedtime. Priorities you know!

I poured my chopped mint leaves and vinegar mixture into a stainless steel stockpot, then added...

4 cups granulated sugar


1/3 cup lemon (or lime) juice


2 12-ounce bottles English malt vinegar


2 cups vinegar (the original recipe called for white vinegar, I used apple cider, this is the vinegar I used to aid in blending/chopping my mint leaves)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper


I brought the entire mixture to a boil and simmered until the leaves were softened. (took about 10 minutes of simmering)


After simmering, I ladled the hot mixture into hot, sterilized pint jars, leaving one inch headspace.


I wiped the rims of the jars with a damp cloth to remove any residue or spillage.


I tightened the lids on to fingertip tightness.


... And processed the jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. (cover the jars with water, bring to a boil, and gently boil for 15 minutes)

After processing, I removed the hot jars using my jar lifter...


...and set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool.


And now for a nice leg of lamb... Mmmmmm!!!

For a printable copy of the recipe, click here.

27 comments:

  1. I've been so excited to see our mint come back this year! It's still tiny, so nothing to harvest yet, but I'm holding on to this recipe for when the time comes. Ought to go wonderfully with our home-raised pork! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for reading Wendy! Hope you have a bountiful mint harvest! ~~Granny

      Delete
  2. That looks like a great recipe! Is your mint more of a spearmint or peppermint? I have both--which would be better? I like your blog, by the way!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrea, I guess it's more of a spearmint... it's your standard garden mint like you'd use in a Mint Julep. ~~Granny

      Delete
  3. Spearmint is normally used for English mint sauce!

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  4. Trying to figure out what bread or whatnots we would use th ejelly on. Have plenty of mint.

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