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Tomato Chutney

A sweet and spicy tomato chutney made with tomatoes, brown sugar, vinegar, sultanas, mustard, ginger, onions, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  2. Boil gently, stirring occasionally, until thickened.

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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

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 main body of the chutney.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the chutney thicken as it cooks down.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the chutney.
Sultanas
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Onions
Add body and savoury depth as they soften during cooking.

The step that matters

Boil gently until thickened. Cooking slowly while stirring prevents the sugars and tomato solids from scorching on the base of the pot, and gentle heat lets moisture evaporate so the chutney thickens evenly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, mustard, ginger, onion, pepper):

  1. Horseradishfits better
  2. Broccolifits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, mustard, ginger, onion, pepper. 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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