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Indian Chutney

A fermented tomato and apple chutney with raisins, spices, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Indian Chutney

Why it works: Tomato and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,076 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Indian Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tomatoes

  1. Chop the green tomatoes finely and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  2. Let the tomatoes drain for 24 hours.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, combine the drained tomatoes, sour apples, raisins, vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, celery seed, grated lemon, red pepper, mace, and cinnamon.

  2. Cook the mixture slowly for three 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Raisin + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,070 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Green tomatoes
Provide the bulk of the chutney and its tart, fresh base flavor.
Sour apples
Add pectin and acidity that help the chutney thicken as it cooks.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture that balances the vinegar.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving acid and gives the chutney its sharp tang.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps form a thick, glossy body as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Slow cooking for three hours. Long, gentle simmering with occasional stirring lets moisture evaporate and the mixture thicken without scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, apple, vinegar, sugar, clove, garlic, celery. 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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