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Cocoanut Chutney

A thick coconut chutney made with soaked coconut, chickpeas, garlic, ginger, chillies, salt, and turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Cocoanut Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and grind

  1. Soak the coconut pieces, with the skin scraped off, in cold water.

  2. Place all ingredients on a clean surface, add the soaked coconut, and grind to a thick paste with a little water. Ensure the mixture is thick enough to form a ball.

Finish

  1. Omit turmeric 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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,876 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Garlic + turmerictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,363 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Coconut (in the method)
Provides moisture, body and rich flavour to the paste.
Husked chana (broiled gram dal)
Adds body and a nutty flavour, helping the paste hold together.
Green ginger
Adds aroma and a sharp, warm bite.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows as the chutney stands.
Green or dry chillies
Add heat and a roasted, smoky flavour.

The step that matters

Grinding to a thick, ball-forming paste. Too much water makes the chutney thin and runny, while too little leaves it dry and gritty. Adding water gradually and grinding until the mixture holds together as a ball gives a smooth, spreadable texture.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, ginger, turmeric):

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, ginger, turmeric. 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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