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Peach Chutney
This requires much less vinegar than apple chutney and may be taken as a basis for chutney for other similar, soft-pulped, juicy fruits. To four pounds of peaches (skins and pits removed) add one and one-fourth pints vinegar, and stew together till soft. Mix and pound together a half pound each of white mustard seed, chopped onions, raisins, and sugar; one-fourth pound of scraped ginger root (green) and one-eighth pound each of garlic and red peppers (dried). When well mixed add to the peaches with three-fourths pint additional of vinegar. Cook slowly together fifteen minutes, then place in small jars.
A workable Anglo-Indian style chutney, but the spice quantities are large by modern habit and the finishing instruction — "place in small jars" — assumes a preserving practice no longer considered adequate on its own.
- The measurements in cupsOne and one-fourth pints of vinegar is 2½ cups; the additional three-fourths pint is 1½ cups, for 4 cups in all. Four pounds of peaches, peeled and pitted, is roughly 10-12 medium fruit.
- Vinegar strengthHousehold vinegar of the period varied; today assume 5 percent acidity cider or malt vinegar, which is what keeps this preserve safe. Do not substitute a diluted "salad" vinegar or a low-acid fruit vinegar.
- Heat levelOne-eighth pound of dried red peppers is about 2 ounces, which in modern terms is a fiercely hot chutney — a large handful of dried cayenne or árbol pods. Start with a quarter of that if you want the fruit to be tasted.
- Green ginger"Scraped ginger root (green)" means fresh ginger, peeled — not preserved or ground. Four ounces of it is a generous but authentic amount.
- White mustard seedYellow mustard seed, sold as such today. Half a pound is about 1½ cups; it stays whole and crunchy unless you crush it, which is what the instruction to "pound" is for. A few pulses in a food processor replaces the mortar.
- Cooking timeFifteen minutes will not reduce four pounds of fruit and four cups of vinegar to chutney consistency. Expect 45-90 minutes of slow open simmering until a spoon drawn across the bottom leaves a channel that fills only slowly.
- Filling the jarsJarring hot chutney and simply capping it is not a preservation method by current standards. Either refrigerate and use within a month, or process filled half-pint jars in a boiling water bath following current tested guidance for high-acid relishes.
- YieldSeveral half-pint jars, depending how far the mixture is reduced. The flavour is raw and harsh at first; chutneys of this type are generally said to improve after a month.
Chutney entered English from the Hindi chatni, and the sweet, vinegared, long-keeping version familiar in Britain and America is an Anglo-Indian invention — a colonial adaptation of fresh Indian relishes into something that could survive a sea voyage and a pantry shelf. The note that this formula "may be taken as a basis for chutney for other similar, soft-pulped, juicy fruits" is the practical heart of the entry: it treats chutney as a method for absorbing a glut, which is exactly the role fruit preserving played in a household with more ripe peaches than it could eat.