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English Chutney

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard 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 ↓

English Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the apples, tomatoes, red peppers, white onions, raisins, and mint very fine.

Combine and steep

  1. In an earthen jar, mix the chopped ingredients with salt, mustard, and sugar.

  2. Pour the boiled and cooled vinegar over the mixture.

  3. Mix well and let stand in a cool place.

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

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

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + minttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tart apples
Add tartness and bulk, giving the chutney body as they break down.
White sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar and tart fruit.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the chutney and gives it its sharp flavour.
Seeded raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the chopped mixture.
Ripe tomatoes
Contribute moisture and savoury body to the chutney.

Swap the raisin

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

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

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