Name: Indian Chutney
Ingredients: 1 oz cayenne pepper; 1 oz garlic; 2 oz ginger powder; 2 oz salt; 2 oz tamarind pulp; 2 oz raisins; 2 oz treacle; 2 oz vinegar; optional: cochineal for color

Why it works: Ginger and tamarind 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 ↓

Indian Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Peel the garlic and rub it with salt to make a paste.
Mix the garlic paste with the remaining ingredients until well combined.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Ginger + tamarindtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together325 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Garlic + tamarindtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together395 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tamarind + raisintop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together36 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Garlic: Provides pungent aroma and sharp flavor that forms the chutney's base.
Tamarind pulp: Adds sour acidity and fruity depth that balances the sweetness.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the chutney.
Treacle: Adds sweetness and dark, rich body.
Raisins: Add sweetness and soft texture as they break down into the mixture.
Cayenne pepper: Adds heat and pungency to the chutney.

Swap the raisin

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

Limefits better
Mangofits better
Lemonfits better
Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, garlic, ginger, tamarind, 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.