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Quince Chutney

A preserved quince or apple chutney with chillies, sugar, ginger, garlic, raisins, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Quince Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel, cut, and core the quinces or apples.

  2. Boil them in the vinegar until soft.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

Make the chutney

  1. Add the finely chopped chillies, sugar, and other ingredients.

  2. Add more vinegar if desired.

  3. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  4. Transfer to jars.

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Quince + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  4. Quince + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together62 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Quinces or sour apples
Provide the main fruit body and natural pectin that thickens the chutney as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that softens the fruit and preserves the chutney.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and chillies.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a soft, chewy texture.
Dried chillies
Add heat and pungency to the chutney.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 30 minutes. Simmering gently lets the liquid reduce slowly and the flavours blend without scorching the sugar and fruit on the bottom of the pan. Boiling hard can burn the sugars and break down the texture unevenly.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quince, sugar, clove, garlic, ginger, vinegar):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quince, sugar, clove, garlic, ginger, vinegar. 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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