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English Chutney Sauce

A sweet and tangy chutney made with apples, mint, raisins, tomatoes, mustard seed, peppers, onions, sugar, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

English Chutney Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Salt the chopped tomatoes and let them drain in a bag overnight.

  2. Put the rest of the ingredients through a meat chopper.

Age

  1. Combine all ingredients in a crock and let it sit for ten days, stirring daily.

Bottle

  1. Transfer to wide-mouthed bottles, cork, and seal.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  4. Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Mustard + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,482 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
Form the bulk of the chutney and supply moisture and body as they break down.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens flavor and helps keep the chutney preserved.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar and tomatoes.
Apples
Add sweetness and soft body, helping the chutney thicken as it breaks down.
Onions
Contribute sharp, savory flavor that mellows during the long resting period.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the finished chutney.

The step that matters

Salting and draining the tomatoes overnight. Salt draws water out of the tomatoes through osmosis. Skipping or shortening this drainage leaves excess liquid, so the chutney may turn thin and watery.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, mint, mustard, tomato, sugar, pepper, 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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