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Chutney Sauce

A vinegar-based chutney with apples, peppers, onions, tomatoes, raisins, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Chutney Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the green peppers, onions, and apples.

  2. Pare the tomatoes and add them to the vinegar.

Cook

  1. Stir in the brown sugar, chopped vegetables, raisins, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves.

  2. Cook slowly and steadily for about 2 hours until thick.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Provide the bulk and body of the sauce as they break down during long cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, balancing the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Apples
Contribute pectin and body, helping the sauce thicken as it cooks.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture throughout the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook slowly and steadily until thick. Long, gentle simmering evaporates water and softens the solids so the sauce thickens. Cooking too hard can scorch the sugar and sticks on the bottom of the pot, so stir regularly.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, pepper, apple, tomato, raisin, cinnamon. 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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