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Dessert

Apple or Gooseberry Chutney

A preserved fruit chutney made with gooseberries or apples, sultanas, raisins, mustard, garlic, ginger, sugar, salt, cayenne, vinegar, and optional turmeric.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Apple or Gooseberry Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the fruit finely and mix well.

  2. Add 2 quarts of vinegar and boil until soft.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  4. If the color is not good, add a little turmeric.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Mustard + turmerictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,279 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Garlic + turmerictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,363 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gooseberries or apples
Provide the fruit base that breaks down into the chutney's body and pulp.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the chutney and sharpens its flavour.
Sultanas
Add sweetness and chewy texture as the dried fruit softens during cooking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps thicken the chutney as it reduces.

The step that matters

Boil until soft, then sieve. The fruit must cook fully soft before sieving, otherwise the mixture will not pass through smoothly and the texture will be grainy or coarse.

Swap the turmeric

The recipe marks turmeric as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, mustard, garlic, ginger, sugar, vinegar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Turmericthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, mustard, garlic, ginger, sugar, 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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