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Green Tomato Chutney

A chutney made from green tomatoes, onions, golden syrup, mustard, cayenne pepper, coriander seeds, allspice, cloves, vinegar, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Green Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the tomatoes and onions.

  2. Layer them with coarse sea salt and leave overnight.

  3. Drain off the salt water the next morning.

Cook

  1. Add the remaining ingredients and cook for 2 to 3 hours.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tomato + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Coriander + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together393 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Form the bulk of the chutney and break down into a thick, moist base as they cook.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and body that thickens the chutney as it cooks down.
Golden syrup
Adds sweetness and helps the chutney set into a glossy, thick texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the chutney.

The step that matters

Draining the salted tomatoes and onions. Salt draws water out of the vegetables by osmosis. Draining that liquid before cooking keeps the chutney from becoming watery and helps it thicken properly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, syrup, mustard, pepper, coriander, allspice, clove):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, syrup, mustard, pepper, coriander, allspice, clove. 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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