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Tomato Chutney

A spicy, sweet tomato chutney made with green tomatoes, apples, vinegar, spices, and golden syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Slice the tomatoes and onions, sprinkle with coarse sea salt, and let stand for 12 hours. Drain.

Make the chutney

  1. In a saucepan, combine vinegar, syrup, mustard, and spices. Bring to a boil.

  2. Pass the tomatoes, onions, apples, and sultanas through a mincing machine and add to the boiling mixture.

  3. Boil for 30 minutes to 1 hour until soft. For a darker color, add a little gravy coloring or burnt sugar.

Jar and seal

  1. Transfer to jars, seal tightly, and cover with greaseproof paper to ensure they are airtight.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mustard + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 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

Green tomatoes
Form the bulk of the chutney and break down into a thick, spreadable texture when boiled.
Onions
Add savoury body and sweetness as they soften during the long boil.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the chutney its sharp flavour and helps preserve it.
Lyle's golden syrup
Adds sweetness and a thick, glossy body that balances the vinegar's sharpness.
Apples
Contribute pectin and body, helping the chutney thicken as it cooks.
Sultanas
Add sweetness and chewy texture as they plump during cooking.

The step that matters

Boiling until soft. Boiling time controls texture. Too short leaves the tomatoes and apples firm and the chutney thin, while longer cooking evaporates water and concentrates the mixture into a thick spread.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, vinegar, pepper, onion, mustard, allspice, clove):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, vinegar, pepper, onion, mustard, allspice, clove. 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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