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Apple Chutney

Apple chutney is a cooked mixture of apples, onions, tomatoes, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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

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

  2. Put all spices into a muslin bag.

  3. Combine all ingredients in a large pot.

  4. Boil together for 8 hours, stirring occasionally.

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

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

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

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

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 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

Sour apples
Provide tartness and pectin that helps the chutney thicken as it cooks.
Dark sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it reduces, deepens colour and gives a rich, caramel-like flavour.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and helps preserve the chutney.
Onions
Contribute body and savoury depth as they soften during the long boil.
Ground rice
Thickens the mixture as its starch gelatinises during cooking.

The step that matters

Boil together for 8 hours, stirring occasionally. A long, gentle boil lets water evaporate so the chutney thickens and darkens. Occasional stirring prevents the sugars and starches from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the apple

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

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

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