an excellent recipe for chutney

I haven’t made any chutney for ages, years in fact, possibly because I like making it more than eating it and we have jars under the stairs destined only as gifts to others. I came across this Scottish recipe in a little book which I think was published in 1963. The introduction to the recipe is interesting – and shows how times have changed (especially since the recipe dates to 1896) and then the instructions aren’t listed as we do now, but in a few chatty paragraphs.

Chutney I have been digging into 1896 again and found an excellent recipe for chutney. I have tried it, and the only thing I had to change was the cover. (the lid/cover of the finished chutney) The original recipe says ‘Cover with a bladder or tissue paper dipped in white of egg’. We are luckier. We can buy very good jam-pot covers. But if you do find yourself just out of them, tissue paper dipped in egg white makes an excellent cover – it dries as tight as any skin, and is absolutely airtight.
Here are the ingredients:

• 2 pints vinegar
• 2 lb tart cooking apples
• 2 lb tomatoes (not over-ripe)
• 1 lb pickling onions or sound, large onions
• 1 lb sugar
• 1 lb sultanas
• 4 oz crystallised ginger
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp capers
• 1 dsp mustard
• 1 dsp salt

1. First of all look over the sultanas, remove any stalks and wash them, leave them over night in barely enough water to cover them. They will absorb most of the water, but if not let it go to the chutney
2. Peel, core and cut up the apples. To get a peeling off as fine as paper, drop the apples into boiling water for a second before peeling. Drop the tomatoes too into that pan of water, but only for a second. If the pan is wide enough, put them in a frying basket and dip it in. The tomatoes will then peel easily and cleanly without losing any flesh. Slice them. Parboil the onions. If they are large, slice them and cut them small; if they are small, slicing is sufficient.
3. Dice the ginger. Mix all the dry ingredients and blend with a little vinegar.
4. Put the vinegar into a jam pan, add all the other ingredients and bring slowly to the boil. Cook gently, having care to the fact that it will burn if not watched. Cool for 1 hour. Bottle and seal when cold.

It sounds such an interesting and tasty recipe, spicy and using such everyday ingredients, I may very well be tempted to bring out my old jam pan and have a go!

My featured image is of some piccalilli I made a few years ago.