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Indian Chutney
Boil together a pint of good vinegar with half a pound of sour, unripe apples, peeled, cored, and quartered. When pulped and cool, add, first pounding them separately in a mortar and afterwards together, the following ingredients: 4 ounces of stoned raisins, 8 ounces of brown sugar, 2 ounces of garlic, and 2 ounces of mustard-seed; mix these well with 2 ounces of powdered ginger, the same of salt, and 1 ounce of cayenne. Put the mixture into an earthenware jar, and set the jar in a warm corner by the fire until next morning, when the chutney may be put into small jars and tied down. It will keep good a year or two. Time to stew apples, until soft.
An Anglo-Indian style chutney built on sour apples rather than mango, with the spice load of a colonial-era relish. The proportions are workable, but two of them will surprise a modern cook.
- The cayenne is the hingeOne ounce of cayenne to about a pound and a quarter of fruit and sugar is roughly four tablespoons of pure ground chile in a small batch. Cayenne of this period may well have been older and weaker than what is sold today; start with a teaspoon or two, taste after the mixture has rested overnight, and add more if it needs it.
- Garlic and ginger by weightTwo ounces of garlic is roughly 12 to 16 average cloves, peeled. Two ounces of powdered ginger is about half a cup, which is a great deal of dried ginger; it will dominate unless reduced, and fresh grated ginger is not a like-for-like substitute here.
- MeasuresA pint is 16 fl oz (2 cups) by American measure; if the source is British, an imperial pint is 20 fl oz. Half a pound of apples is one large or two small cooking apples once peeled and cored. Use a nonreactive pan -- stainless or enamelled -- since the vinegar will pit bare cast iron or aluminium.
- Mustard-seedYellow or brown whole seed, pounded in the mortar as directed, gives the coarse texture the recipe expects. Prepared mustard will not do the same work; it lacks the seed coat and adds its own vinegar and salt.
- "A warm corner by the fire"This is an overnight rest at gentle warmth so the sugar dissolves fully and the spices bloom, not a cooking step. The back of a stove, a turned-off oven with the light on, or simply a covered bowl at room temperature all serve.
- "Tied down" and keepingThe original seals with a paper or cloth cover tied over the jar mouth, which relies on the vinegar and sugar to preserve. Pack into clean jars with proper lids and keep them in the refrigerator; the flavour still improves over several weeks, but do not count on the year or two of ambient storage the book promises.
- YieldRoughly 2 to 3 cups, enough for two or three half-pint jars, depending on how far the vinegar reduces. The mixture thickens noticeably as it cools and again after resting.