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Sauce

Indian Chutney Sauce

A spiced chutney sauce of apples, tomatoes, raisins, vinegar and lemon juice, left to mature for a month and then strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the apples into small square pieces.

  2. Add the chopped apples and all other ingredients to a large bowl.

  3. Mix everything well together.

Steep

  1. Transfer the mixture to a well-covered jar.

  2. Keep the jar in a warm place and stir every day for a month.

Strain and store

  1. After a month, strain the mixture but do not squeeze it dry.

  2. Store the liquid in clean jars or bottles for use.

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Ginger + shallottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 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

Apples
Sharp, sour apples add tartness and body as they soften during the long steep.
Vinegar
Provides the main sharp acidity and helps preserve the mixture over the month-long steep.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth that balances the sourness of the vinegar and lemon juice.
Tomatoes
Contribute body and savoury flavour that thickens the sauce as it breaks down.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows and blends into the sauce during steeping.
Cayenne
Supplies the chilli heat that builds gradually as the sauce steeps.

The step that matters

Strain without squeezing. Pressing the solids forces fine pulp through the strainer, which clouds the sauce and can make it taste rough. Letting it drip on its own keeps the liquid clear and smooth.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, tomato, sugar, ginger, garlic, shallot, vinegar. 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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