Apple Chutney recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Chutney and Pickles | 252 comments
Our apples make great chutney
I’m not surprised that the fruit that tempted Eve was an apple. It is such a useful fruit. From sweet apple puree to flagons of frothy cider, the apple plays a major role in our lives.
It always troubles me when I see apples left unpicked on trees. We’ve had a great cooking apple harvest this year. Danny and I have spent the morning picking apples from the old trees in our tiny orchard. We are going to make cider this year and have a go at apple wine. So we left a great pile of them on the garden table to soften in the frosts.
If you do this it’s easier to extract the juice. The ones that we pick from the tree are wrapped in newspaper and stored in cardboard boxes in the shed. The mice do nibble a few but the majority keep through the winter until we need them.
The windfalls don’t keep. Even if they look good they are bruised when they hit the ground. We have loads of windfalls, so we decided to branch out and add apple chutney to our range. As with our plum chutney we wanted a fruit rather than a vegetable taste.
This delicate chutney is the result.
| Cottage Smallholder Apple Chutney recipe |
- 1.5 k of cooking apples
- 500g of onions
- 500g of sultanas
- 750g Demerara sugar
- 500ml of white wine vinegar
- Zest and juice of two lemons
- I small chilli
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp of cinnamon
- Pinch of ground cloves
- ½ tsp of Maldon sea salt
- 8 peppercorns
- 1 tbsp of mustard seed
- Wash, peel, core and chop the apples fine
- Peel and chop and mince the onions (if you don’t have a mincer chop them very fine)
- Put all ingredients into a large heavy bottomed saucepan and bring slowly to the boil. Stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
- Then simmer very gently, bubbles barely breaking the surface, until the chutney has thickened, stiring every now and then.
- It is ready when drawing a spoon across the surface leaves a definite track mark. This will take at least four hours.
- Pot into warm sterilised jars with plastic lined lids (how do I sterilise jars and lids? See Tips and Tricks below).
- Don’t use cellophane lids as the vinegar will evaporate through these and your chutney will dry up.
- Label when cold and store in a cool, dry place.
- Leave to mature for a month. The longer that you leave it to mature the better it will be!
Tips and Tricks
<strong>How do I get rid of tainted smells in pots?</strong>
If your cooking pot or container is tainted with the smell of the last resident (curry, tomato sauce etc). Sprinkle with a good tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda into it and add a good splosh of boiling water. Rub the solution over all surfaces and leave for two minutes. Rinse well in cold water.
<strong>How do I sterilise jars and lids?</strong>
The sterilising method that we use is simple. When the chutney is cooked, I quickly wash and rinse the jars and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 160c (140c fan assisted). When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The jars will stay warm for quite a while. I only use plastic lined metal lids for preserves as the all-metal lids can go rusty. I boil these for five minutes in water to sterilise them. If I use Le Parfait jars, I do the same with the rubber rings.
Leave a reply
Hi Nadine
I have no idea if this would work. All you can try is to taste it during the simmering process. Sweet cherry toms would be fine but more acidic toms migt need a bit more sugar.
Hello! I’ve made apple chutney using your recipe a couple of times and its always been amazing, but I was thinking of making tomato chutney today and can’t seem to find a recipe that’s totally … convincing. Do’you think I can just adapt this one by switching the central ingredient and tinkering, or are tomatoes and apples too fundamentally different?
Hi John
Yes you could use crab apples you’dprobably need a bit more sugar.
Hi Fiona
Had to leave a comment this time, because last year I used your apple chutney recipe with my parents’ crab apples, and it made one of the best chutneys I’ve ever tasted (and certainly the best I’ve ever made). Hubby and I moved to Australia from East Sussex 18 months ago to semi-retire, and my vegetable patch and recently planted succulent garden (that’s “veggies and succies” in “Australian”) has been a deeply satisfying way to spend time.
I’ve just made this year’s batch with the parents’ apples again, but also cheap surplus apples from our local orchards (we now live near Harcourt, which is “Apple Central” in Victoria). We have a wood-burning stove in our new house, which is prefect for putting the big stockpots on to simmer. I’m back at cottagesmallholder looking for quince recipes, so will let you know how I get on with the jelly, which seems to have had an even more rapturous response than this chutney.
Thank you not only for the recipes, but an excellently written blog and a meticulously maintained site (unlike mine). It takes dedication to reply to your many fans, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who appreciates it.
And just think – there are plenty of lurkers who love your recipes and blog, too!
(website address given is just for you to see the chutney-making photos in April 2008)
Hello Jaynee
Thanks so much for dropping by.
Delighted that the apple chutney recipe worked well with crab apples.
If you are lucky enough to access quinces you will fly.
Hi
I have not tried making chutney before and was wandering whever I could use crab apples in this recipe as there are lots of crab apple trees near me
Hello Meggie
Did you use our recipe?
If you followed our recipe there shouldn’t be a vinegary taste.
If you used another recipe let the jars mature for a few months, testing every three months or so. It should eventually disappear.
how do i get the vinegary taste our of my chutney?
thanks
Hi Jane
My brother lives in NZ so there is an affinity with you!
If the apples are tart they are probably perfect. You need to taste the chutney and possibly add the zest of half a large lemon and the juice.
Good luck any way.
Fiona
Greetings from New Zealand. This recipe looks delicious. We are in the throws of summer here and my Dad has a Cox’s orange apple tree that is heavily laden with fruit. The apples are pretty tart, would they be suitable for this recipe?
Many thanks
I made a large batch of this and gave out as Christmas presents which were gratefully received. Excellent recipe and would suggest leave to mature for min of 2 months.
Does anyone have a good recipe for a tomato based chutney?!