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Apricot-jam Chutney

A sweet and spicy chutney made with apricot jam, raisins, ginger, garlic, chillies, mustard seed, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,053 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Apricot-jam Chutney

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Weigh the materials after picking and cleaning.

  2. Stone and chop the raisins.

  3. Pound the ginger, garlic, and chillies separately into a paste with a little vinegar.

Cook

  1. Mix all ingredients well.

  2. Boil for 40 minutes until the mixture thickens slightly.

Bottle

  1. Let it cool, then bottle and use as needed.

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. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

  3. Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Apricot + gingertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together341 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Apricot jam
Provides the bulk, body and sweetness that the chutney thickens around.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a soft, chewy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and sharpness that balance the sweetness of the fruit.
Garlic
Contributes a pungent, savoury aroma that mellows during boiling.
Dried chillies
Provide heat and a warm, lingering bite.
Green ginger
Adds a fresh, warm, spicy aroma and a sharp bite.

The step that matters

Boil until the mixture thickens slightly. Boiling drives off water and concentrates the sugars and pectin in the fruit, so the chutney sets to a spreadable consistency. Too short a boil leaves it runny, while too long a boil can scorch the sugars and make it overly stiff as it cools.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apricot, garlic, ginger, mustard, vinegar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against apricot, garlic, ginger, mustard, 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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