Skip to main content
Main

Apple Chutney

A sweet and spicy preserve made from apples, onions, tomatoes, and spices, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely cut the apples, onions, and tomatoes.

  2. Place all spices in a muslin bag.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a pot.

  2. Boil together for 3 hours.

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 + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

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

  4. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 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

Sour apples
Provide the bulk and tartness that balances the sweet dark sugar.
Dark sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it cooks down, a rich, dark colour and depth.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the chutney and sharpens its flavour.
Onions
Add body and savoury sweetness as they soften during the long simmer.
Ground rice
Thickens the mixture so it sets to a spreadable, glossy consistency.

The step that matters

Boil together for 3 hours. A long, gentle simmer lets the liquid evaporate and the fruit and vegetables break down into a thick, spreadable texture. Stopping early leaves it runny, and boiling too hard can scorch the sugar on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, onion, garlic, rice, tomato, pepper, ginger):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, onion, garlic, rice, tomato, pepper, ginger. 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.

More apple chutney recipes

Tomato 3 See all 37 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes