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Mint Chutney

A sweet and tangy mint chutney made with raisins, sugar, mint, vinegar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Mint and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,372 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mint Chutney

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the raisins, drain, and chop them finely.

Mix and rest

  1. Mix together all the ingredients.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 2 hours to allow the flavors to mingle.

Serve

  1. Serve with cold roast lamb or lamb curry.

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. Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Mint + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sultana raisins
Provide chewy texture and natural sweetness that softens the sharpness of the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity and tang that brightens the chutney and keeps it fresh-tasting.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Chopped mint leaves
Contribute a fresh, aromatic flavor that defines the chutney.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, mint, vinegar, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, mint, vinegar, pepper. 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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