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Dessert

Chutney and Quihi

A preserved fruit and vegetable chutney made with apples, tomatoes, raisins, chillis, vinegar, lemon juice, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,592 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Chutney and Quihi

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the apples, tomatoes, brown sugar, raisins, red chillis, and salt in a large bowl.

  2. Add the vinegar and lemon juice to the mixture.

Ferment

  1. Place the mixture in a jar on a stove or near a fire, maintaining a temperature of at least 130°F (54°C).

  2. Stir the mixture twice a day for one month.

  3. After a month, strain the mixture without squeezing.

Bottle and serve

  1. Bottle the chutney, which can be used as a sauce for fish or meat, hot or cold.

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 + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Apple + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together548 recipes

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

  5. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide tartness and body as the chutney breaks down over the long steeping.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a molasses-like depth that balances the sharp vinegar.
Vinegar
Acts as the main preservative and gives the chutney its sharp acidity.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture as they soften in the mixture.
Red chillis
Supply heat and pungency to the chutney.

The step that matters

Keeping the mixture warm for a month. The jar must stay at a steady warm temperature and be stirred regularly so the fruit breaks down evenly. Too little heat slows the process, and uneven heat or neglect can let spoilage start before the vinegar has fully preserved the mixture.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, raisin, vinegar, lemon. 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.

More chutney recipes

Apple 37Tomato 35Sauce 32Mango 18Indian 17Bengal 11 See all 6 →

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