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Chutney, Indian

A vinegar-based chutney made with apples, onions, garlic, raisins, ginger, cayenne, mustard, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and mustard 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 ↓

Chutney, Indian

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chutney

  1. Cook the apples, onions, and garlic with the salt, sugar, and vinegar until soft.

  2. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

  3. Add the raisins, ginger, cayenne, and mustard; mix well.

  4. Transfer to a jar and let it sit in a warm place overnight.

Bottle

  1. Fill dry, wide-necked bottles or jars with chutney 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. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

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

  2. Vinegar + mustardtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

  4. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

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

  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

Sour apples
Provide tartness and pectin that thickens the chutney as it cooks down.
Moist sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the chutney while balancing the vinegar.
Malt vinegar
Supplies acidity that gives the chutney its sharp flavour and helps keep it stable.
Onions
Add bulk, savoury depth, and body to the cooked base.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and soft chewy texture.

The step that matters

Passing the cooked mixture through a fine sieve. Sieving removes the fibrous pulp and skins so the chutney becomes smooth and even in texture. Cooking until fully soft ensures the apples and onions break down enough to pass through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (malt, vinegar, apple, sugar, raisin, ginger, mustard):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against malt, vinegar, apple, sugar, raisin, ginger, mustard. 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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