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Dessert

Tomato Chutney

A sweet and spicy tomato chutney made with tomatoes, apples, raisins, onions, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chutney

  1. Chop the tomatoes, apples, and onions.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a pot.

  3. Cook until the chutney thickens and becomes clear.

Jar

  1. Seal in hot, clean 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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cinnamon + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the main body and bulk of the chutney.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the chutney thicken as it cooks.
Apples
Add pectin and body, helping the chutney set as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the chutney.
Onions
Add savoury depth and body to the chutney.

The step that matters

Cook until the chutney thickens and becomes clear. Chutney thickens as water evaporates and sugar and fruit pectin concentrate. Stopping too early leaves it runny and less stable in the jar, while overcooking makes it stiff and sticky once cooled.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, apple, raisin, cinnamon, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, apple, raisin, cinnamon, mustard, 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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