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Peach Chutney

A preserved mixture of peaches, sugar, raisins, spices, and vinegar, simmered and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,067 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Peach Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pare and slice the peaches.

  2. Stew the peaches until soft in half of the vinegar.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the sugar and the other half of the vinegar into a syrup.

  2. Add the raisins, mustard seed, red chili peppers, and ginger root to the syrup.

  3. Add the salt and a little garlic.

Cook and seal

  1. Boil all together for 20 minutes.

  2. Seal in jars.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Peach + gingertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

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

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

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

  5. Ginger + mustardtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,456 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

Peaches
Provide the main fruit body and soften into the chutney as they stew.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the syrup into a preserve.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances sweetness and helps preserve the chutney.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture.
Ginger root
Adds sharp, aromatic heat that cuts through the sweetness.
Red chili peppers
Add heat and a sharp, pungent bite.

The step that matters

Boil all together for 20 minutes. The mixture must cook long enough for the sugar to concentrate and the vinegar to acidify it, which thickens the chutney and helps it keep safely in sealed jars.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against peach, sugar, ginger, mustard, 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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