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.