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Chutney Sauce

A sweet and tangy chutney made with apples, tomatoes, mangoes, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,621 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chutney Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine the apple, tomatoes, salt, sugar, raisins, and lime juice.

  2. Pound the mustard seed, ginger, garlic, capsicum, and chillies, then add to the mixture.

  3. Pour the vinegar over the mixture and stir well.

Cook and bottle

  1. Simmer gently for 2 hours.

  2. Let it stand overnight, then simmer again.

  3. Transfer to small bottles and seal tightly.

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. Lime + gingertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,621 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  5. Lime + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together392 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Apple
Adds body and a mild sweetness that balances the sharp vinegar.
Tomatoes
Break down during simmering to add moisture and bulk to the sauce.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the sauce a deeper, darker flavour.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the sauce.
Mustard seed
Contributes a sharp, pungent flavour when cooked in the sauce.
Green mangoes
Add tartness and body to the chutney as they soften during simmering.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 2 hours. Simmering too hard can scorch the sugar and fruit on the bottom of the pan and make the sauce bitter. A gentle heat lets the fruit break down evenly and the flavours blend while the vinegar slowly reduces and thickens the sauce.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, tomato, sugar, lime, mustard, ginger, garlic):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, tomato, sugar, lime, mustard, ginger, garlic. 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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