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Tamarind Chutney

A spicy tamarind and ginger chutney seasoned with salt, green chillies, and roasted mustard seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tamarind and ginger work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 325 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Tamarind Chutney

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound together the tamarind pulp and green ginger.

  2. Season with salt, minced green chillies, and roasted mustard seed.

  3. Mix thoroughly and serve.

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. Tamarind + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together325 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Tamarind + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Ginger + mustardtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,456 recipes

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

  4. Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,003 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Tamarind + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Tamarind pulp
Provides the sour, fruity base that gives the chutney its main acidity.
Green ginger
Adds sharp, aromatic heat that balances the tamarind's sourness.
Green chillies
Contribute pungent heat and a bright, fresh bite.
Mustard seed
Adds a nutty, toasted pungency once roasted in butter.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tamarind, mustard, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tamarind, mustard, butter. 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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