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Dessert

Plum Chutney

A sweet and spicy plum chutney made with plums, sugar, onions, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Plum Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Crack the seeds of the plums and chop the plums.

  2. Combine the chopped plums, sugar, onions, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves in a large pot.

  3. Cook the mixture well until it thickens.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Plum + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together513 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  5. Plum + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together446 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Plums
Provide the fruit base and natural pectin that helps the chutney thicken as it cooks.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it dissolves and concentrates, helps preserve the chutney and thicken it.
Onions
Add savory bulk and a mellow sweetness that balances the tart plums.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic flavor that complements the fruit.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma and depth to the spiced fruit mixture.
Cloves
Adds strong, warm aroma that fills the chutney's spice profile.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture well until it thickens. Cooking long enough lets water evaporate and sugar concentrate, which thickens the chutney. Stopping early leaves it runny and less stable in storage.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (plum, sugar, allspice, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against plum, sugar, allspice, cinnamon, clove. 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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