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
Good morning.
As I have never made chutney before and having sampled a jar of apple chutney made with cider and sultanas etc. (Came from a company in Devon. ) As I have a mature bramley and would like to use these apples.
Would you oblige me with a recipe please.
I might add this is the first chutney that I have enjoyed as I do no appreciate vinegar.
Kind regards
Hi Becky,
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave such a positive comment! Much appreciated.
Really pleased that you like the apple chutney. It gets better and better as it matures.
Quince jelly is great. The queen of jellies, I think.
Hello,
I just thought I’d drop you a line, firstly to tell you what a brilliant website you’ve set up, and secondly what great recipes you have on it!!!
I made your Apple Chutney recipe 2 weeks ago, and ate the ‘stuff left in the pan’ straight away. It was already so yummy that I made a second batch last weekend! I substituted cider apple vinegar for white wine as I had some already, and that worked very well …I think that this weekend I shall try your No-Cook Apple, Date and Onion Chutney – I’m quite intrigued by it!
The quince jelly was also a hit, although I seem to have to cook it far longer than recommended to get it to turn to jelly (it does mean that it gains a beautiful pink colour though!)
Keep up the brilliant work, and I look forward to cooking lots more of your recipes!
Becky
Hi Claire,
I’m pretty sure that would work. Use the same weight of dates and chop them.
I’d love to hear how it turns out.
hello
could i subsitute the sultanas with dates? if so, what quantity should i use? Thanks
Thanks for the reply, cooked now and it has darkened. Put one whole chopped chilli in it tastes delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Joyce,
Glad to hear that you are trying our chutney.
This is quite a pale chutney. It will darken a bit as it matures.
just trying out your apple chutney recipe, it smells delicious, however, very pale at the moment one and a half hours into cooking time, is this normal, should it be pale or dark.
Thanks
regards
Hi Abby,
As it is chutney, rather than jam, it doesn’t need the same sort of seal so I reckon that you could re jar your chutney.
Just remember to sterilise the jars and lids. If I was you I would put room temperature chutney into warm jars.
Hi there – will definitely try this recipe. I have a previous batch of chutney and apple jelly in rather large jars. I would like to give some for xmas presents. Is it ok to re-jar them? Any tips.