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Apple Chutney

A chutney made from mashed roasted apples, shallots, chillies, salt, vinegar, and beetroot juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 139 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Apple Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound the shallots.

  2. Mix all the ingredients together.

  3. Stew gently until the mixture is uniform and creamy.

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. Shallot + beetroottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together139 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Shallot + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,431 recipes

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

  3. Onion + beetroottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,261 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Apple + beetroottop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together233 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide the bulk and pectin that thicken the chutney as it stews.
Shallots
Add a sharp, savoury onion flavour that balances the sweetness of the apples.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps keep the chutney stable.
Powdered chillies
Add heat and a warm, pungent flavour to the chutney.

The step that matters

Stew gently until uniform and creamy. Stewing over gentle heat lets the apple pulp break down and thicken evenly. High heat can scorch the sugars and leave lumps or a burnt taste before the mixture is smooth.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, onion, vinegar, beetroot):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, onion, vinegar, beetroot. 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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