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Jeu Chutney

A chutney made from apples, dates, chillies, ginger, garlic or onion, sugar, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,402 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Jeu Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Roughly chop the apples and cook them in vinegar until soft.

  2. Add the garlic or onion, dates, chillies, sugar, salt, and preserved ginger.

  3. Boil the mixture until it becomes soft and pulpy.

  4. Store in jars and cover.

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. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  2. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

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

  3. Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Apple + datestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Green apples
Break down into pulp, providing bulk and natural pectin that helps the chutney thicken.
Dates
Add body and natural sweetness, and help thicken the chutney as they soften.
Moist sugar
Sweetens the chutney and helps preserve it by binding water.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances sweetness and helps preserve the chutney.
Garlic or onion
Contributes savoury aroma and depth of flavour as it cooks down.
Preserved ginger
Adds warm, sharp aroma and a spicy note to the chutney.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until soft and pulpy. Cooking long enough lets the fruit break down and the sugar and vinegar concentrate, which gives a thick chutney that keeps well. Stopping early leaves it runny and more likely to spoil.

Swap the dates

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

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, garlic, sugar, ginger, 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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