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Imitation Chutney
Indian chutney is a compound of mangoes, Chillies and lime-juice, with some portion of other native fruits, such as tamarinds, etc., the flavor being heightened by garlic. For family use the following recipe will be found suitable: Chillies, one pound to one and a half pounds; apples, one pound; red tamarinds, two pounds; sugar candy, one pound; fresh ginger-root, one pound; garlic, one-half pound to three-fourths of a pound; sultana raisins, one and a half pound; fine salt, one pound; distilled vinegar, five bottles. The Chillies are to be soaked for an hour in the vinegar, and the whole ground with a stone and muller to a paste. Another recipe which may be depended upon for making an excellent chutney is as follows: One pound salt; one pound mustard-seed; one pound stoned raisins; one pound brown sugar; twelve ounces garlic; six ounces cayenne pepper; two quarts unripe gooseberries, and two quarts best vinegar. The mustard-seed should be gently dried and bruised, and the sugar made into a syrup with a pint of the vinegar; the gooseberries dried and boiled in a quart of the vinegar; the garlic to be well bruised in a mortar. When cold, gradually mix the whole in a mortar, and with the remaining vinegar thoroughly amalgamate them. To be tied down close; the longer kept the better.
VIII. Piccalilli.
THIS is simply mixed pickle, chopped. It may be fairly cooked, or better, only scalded. Here is a good recipe: To a peck of green tomatoes, sliced thin, add a pint of salt. Cover with cold water and let them stand twenty-four hours. Then chop fine one head of cabbage, six onions (or not as you please) and twelve sweet peppers. Cover with scalding vinegar and drain through a sieve. Pack the mixture in a jar, mix with vinegar enough to cover the whole; add a tablespoonful each of cloves and allspice, two ounces of white mustard-seed and a pint of molasses. Let the whole come to a boil and add the vegetables, either hot or cold, preferably cold.
Three recipes run together here: two chutneys built on the Anglo-Indian model and a piccalilli that is really a chopped mixed pickle. All are made at nineteenth-century preserving scale, and the proportions need reading carefully before you commit.
- Scale down firstThe first chutney totals roughly ten pounds of solids plus five bottles of vinegar, a batch of a gallon or more. Quartering or eighth-ing every quantity gives a manageable batch without changing the balance.
- "Five bottles" is ambiguousBottle sizes were not standardised in this period, ranging from about a pint to a quart, and the book gives no capacity. Work to consistency instead: enough vinegar to bring the ground paste to a thick, spoonable pulp.
- Chillies by weightA pound of chillies means whole dried pods, not ground chilli powder; a pound of powder in this quantity would be inedible. Even as pods this is fierce, and cutting the chilli to a quarter of the stated weight is reasonable for most palates. The same caution applies to the six ounces of cayenne in the gooseberry version.
- Sugar candy and red tamarindsSugar candy is rock sugar, crystallised from cane syrup; plain granulated sugar substitutes at the same weight. "Red tamarind" most likely points to ripe tamarind pulp, for which the sticky block sold as wet tamarind or tamarind paste is the practical substitute — soak and sieve out fibre and seed before weighing.
- Stone and mullerThat is a flat grinding stone with a hand roller, the Indian sil batta. A food processor does the job, though the texture will be looser; work in batches and add the soaking vinegar gradually to keep the paste moving.
- The salt is a preservative, not a seasoningA pound of fine salt across the batch is deliberate — with the vinegar it is what keeps the chutney sound in a crock at room temperature. Reduce it substantially and the keeping quality goes with it, so a lower-salt version belongs in the refrigerator.
- "Tied down close"The original means a crock or jar sealed with a bladder, parchment or waxed paper tied over the mouth. Use clean jars with proper lids, and refrigerate after opening rather than relying on the maturing time the book recommends.
- A peck of green tomatoesA peck is eight dry quarts, about 12 to 14 lb of tomatoes. The pint of salt is a volume measure, on the order of a pound of fine salt, and it is drawn off with the soaking water after twenty-four hours rather than staying in the pickle.
- Piccalilli assemblyThe instruction reads oddly because the spiced vinegar and molasses are boiled first, then the drained vegetables are added off the heat. Adding them cold, as the book prefers, keeps the cabbage and peppers crisp; boiling them in turns the whole thing soft.
Chutney comes from the Hindi chatni, a fresh relish ground on a stone, and what reached British and American kitchens was a sweetened, vinegar-preserved cousin said by tradition to have been developed for the long sea voyage home from India. Bottled versions were a familiar grocery item throughout the nineteenth century, and this entry is headed "imitation," with apples and gooseberries standing in for green mango. The gooseberry recipe is a well-travelled one, versions of it appearing in English cookery books for decades before this book was printed. Piccalilli belongs to the same Anglo-Indian impulse — the name is generally traced to eighteenth-century English recipes for "paco-lilla" or India pickle — and in America it was among the uses found for the green tomatoes left on the vines at first frost.