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Chutney Sauce

A preserved tomato chutney with peppers, onions, sugar, salt, vinegar, ginger, and raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chutney Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scald and peel the tomatoes.

  2. Remove the seeds from the green peppers.

  3. Peel the onions and cut all ingredients into small bits.

Cook

  1. Combine all ingredients in a porcelain preserving kettle.

  2. Simmer slowly for 2 hours.

Pack and store

  1. Pack into wide-mouthed bottles, cork tightly, and store in a cool place.

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

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

  2. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

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

  4. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,887 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main bulk, moisture and fresh tomato flavour of the chutney.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the chutney.
Onions
Add aromatic pungency that mellows and sweetens during long simmering.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture as the chutney thickens.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly for 2 hours. Slow simmering lets water evaporate gradually so the mixture thickens and the flavours blend. Too fast a boil can scorch the sugar and fruit on the bottom of the kettle and leave the chutney dark and bitter.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, pepper, onion, sugar, vinegar, 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.

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