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Old English Chutney

A spicy apple chutney made with vinegar, spices, and dried chillies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Old English Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apple base

  1. Boil the unripe apples in vinegar with cochineal until soft.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

Prepare the spices

  1. Pound the cloves, coriander seed, mustard seed, cinnamon, black pepper, and garden mint very fine.

Combine and simmer

  1. Add the ginger, nutmeg, garlic, raisins, and coarse sea salt to the apple mixture.

  2. Mix in the cayenne pepper and dried chillies.

  3. Let the mixture simmer on the fire for a few minutes.

  4. Strain if desired.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Coriander + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Coriander + minttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together940 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Unripe apples
Provide pectin and body, so the cooked fruit thickens into a spreadable chutney.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that softens the apples and preserves the chutney.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture that balances the sharp vinegar and spices.
Garlic
Adds pungent flavour that mellows during simmering.
Dried chillies
Add heat and a deeper, lingering spiciness.
Cloves
Add warm, aromatic flavour that carries through the chutney.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve. Sieving breaks down the softened apples into a smooth, even texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves lumps of fruit and skin in the finished chutney.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, clove, coriander, mustard, cinnamon, pepper, mint):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, clove, coriander, mustard, cinnamon, pepper, mint. 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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