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Tomato Chutney

A sweet and spicy tomato chutney made with tomatoes, apples, raisins, sugar, spices, vinegar, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,331 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the tomatoes, apples, onions, and raisins very fine.

  2. Add all other ingredients and boil slowly for 1 hour.

  3. Bottle the chutney when it is cold.

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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Raisin + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Ripe tomatoes
Provide the bulk and moisture that form the body of the chutney.
Sour apples
Add acidity and pectin that help the chutney thicken as it cooks.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the vinegar and fruit.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that preserves the chutney and sharpens its flavour.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture as they soften during slow boiling.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for 1 hour. Slow simmering lets the fruit break down and the liquid reduce gradually, thickening the chutney without scorching the sugars. Too fast a boil can burn the bottom and leave the texture uneven.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, raisin, sugar, ginger, allspice, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, raisin, sugar, ginger, allspice, pepper, nutmeg. 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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