Grape Chutney

A straightforward Anglo-Indian style sweet-sour preserve, but the measurements are loose in places and the storage instructions are pre-canning. Read the salt and sealing notes before you start.

• "Four of salt" is ambiguousThe sentence lists ounces of garlic, horseradish, ginger and mustard, so "four of salt" most likely means four ounces — close to half a cup of table salt, which is very heavily salted for a quart of fruit. Start with about two teaspoons and adjust at the end rather than guessing at the larger figure.
• Small measuresA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon. Half a pint of brown sugar is one cup, packed. A pint of vinegar is two cups; cider vinegar suits the fruit better than distilled white.
• The spices are by weightAn ounce of garlic is about four large cloves; an ounce of dry mustard is roughly four tablespoons, and an ounce of ground ginger about the same. If you use fresh ginger and fresh horseradish, an ounce is a two-inch knob and a two-inch piece of root respectively.
• Unripe grapes are the pointFull-sized but green grapes carry the tartness and pectin that ripe fruit has lost. Seeding them is tedious but necessary in the older varieties; if you use modern seedless table grapes, expect a softer, sweeter result and cut the sugar.
• Kettle and crockUse enamelled cast iron or stainless steel. Vinegar and salt attack bare iron, aluminium and copper, and a long acidic simmer in any of them will taste metallic. The same applies to the week-long resting period: glazed earthenware or glass only.
• "Rub smooth"This means pushing the cooked mixture through a sieve or food mill once it has thickened, giving a smooth relish rather than a chunky one. A short pulse in a blender does the same job. The sugar goes in afterwards, so it dissolves without scorching on the bottom.
• The week of standingDaily stirring in an open crock lets the flavours marry and the harshness of the raw garlic and mustard soften. Keep it covered with a cloth and in the refrigerator or a genuinely cold larder — a week at room temperature invites surface mould, and skimming mould off a preserve is no longer considered acceptable practice.
• SealingThe recipe closes with corked jars in a dark cupboard, a common way of putting up preserves at the time. Today, ladle the finished chutney hot into sterilised jars and process in a boiling water bath, or simply refrigerate it and use it within a couple of months. The vinegar and sugar do most of the preserving work, but the cork does none.
• YieldNo yield is given; expect roughly two to three pints, depending on how far the mixture is reduced. It is a condiment for cold meat, curry and sharp cheese, not a jam; a tablespoon is a serving.