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Dessert

A GooD Chutney

A sweet chutney made from raisins, dates, apples, sugar, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 859 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

A GooD Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the raisins, dates, and peeled, cored apples.

  2. Mince the chillies very fine.

  3. Slice the ginger, garlic, and shallots thinly.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in an enameled stew pan.

  2. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 4 to 6 hours.

  3. Transfer to jars or bottles and seal well.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Shallot + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together859 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Shallot + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Provide sweetness and body as they soften during the long simmer.
Dates
Add sweetness and a thick, soft texture to the chutney.
Apples
Break down during cooking to give the chutney bulk and pectin-driven body.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the chutney while thickening it.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour that mellows with cooking.
Dilute acetic acid
Provides sharpness and acts as a preservative that keeps the chutney stable.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 4 to 6 hours. A gentle simmer lets the fruit break down and the mixture thicken slowly. Boiling hard can scorch the sugars and fruit on the bottom of the pan, giving a burnt taste.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, apple, sugar, shallot, ginger, garlic, mustard):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, apple, sugar, shallot, ginger, garlic, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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