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Tomato Chutney

A preserved tomato and apple chutney flavored with mustard seed, ginger, onions, salt, cayenne, vinegar, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mustard and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,259 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the tomatoes into a preserving pan.

  2. Add the quartered apples to the pan.

Make the chutney

  1. Stir in the crushed mustard seed, grated ginger, onions, salt, cayenne pepper, and malt vinegar.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat until it thickens.

  3. Add sugar to taste, adjusting based on the fruit's sweetness.

Jar

  1. Pour into sterilized jars and seal well.

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. Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Ginger + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 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

Tomatoes
Provide the main body and bulk of the chutney as they break down during cooking.
Apples
Add natural pectin and body, helping the chutney thicken as it cooks.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and sweetens the chutney.
Malt vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the chutney.
Onions
Contribute savoury depth and body as they soften in the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Cooking over low heat until it thickens. Slow cooking lets water evaporate gradually so the fruit and onion break down into a thick, spreadable texture. Too much heat can scorch the sugar and sticking solids at the bottom of the pan.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, mustard, ginger, onion, pepper, malt, 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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