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 Daisy
I can’t really advise. A lot of chutney is made with malt vinegar there is a good recipe here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/spicedapplechutney_7720.shtml that takes 2-3 months to mature. It might we worth comparing the other ingredients with our recipe and adjusting.
Oh dear, bit worried about the vinegar now. I used pickling vinegar as I had that, will that ruin the taste? Concerned that I might have made a batch of awful inedible christmas chutney. Its on the hob as I type, if it is too strong a flavour is there anything I can do at this stage?
Hi morna mo and Katy
You can use any vinegar but the stronger the vinegar the stronger the taste. White wine or cider vinegar give a much softer taste. Malt vinegar might spoil the taste and would need to mature for months. I’d love to hear how you get on if you go down this route.
Danny’s tum can’t cope with malt vinegar so all our chutney is made with the lighter vinegar. They produce far more delicate chutney that doesn’t need months to mature.
Hi! I have the same question – I’ve got a ton of organic apples and though I’d love to eat them, I’ve got tonsilitis and then I’m having my wisdom teeth taken out! So only purees for me! Can I use malt vinegar coz I don’t have any wine vinegar and don’t really want to go to the supermarket in my current state! I’d try it but I’ve never made any kind of preserves or anything before!
Hi, new to chutney but have got a lot of cooking apples to use up. Does it have to be wine vinegar or is ordinary or malt vinegar ok? Sorry if this is a stipid question!!
I too will be having a bash at this alternative apple chutney recipe – I adore chutney and can quite easily get through a jar in a couple of days! But I need more ideas for what to do with the glut of both dessert and cooking apples that we have got down here in the Pyrenees. I have got 20-30kgs of fruit to use before it ends up on the compost heap! We have already got 35 ltrs of cider brewing, have frozen some puree for the winter, dried apple rings, made various jellies……! Any other suggestions very welcome.
Hi
Just came across your site looking for other additions to put into Apple Chutney. I agree with the other comment left about cranberries, I made this last year and didn’t make enough. Getting ready to go into production now. I use dried cranberries with the apple and its absolutely lush!!
Have now made two batches from this recipe.
In answer to tracy truelove’s question on October 12th, on batch two I upped the chillis to four, added half a bulb of minced garlic and a little extra mustard seed. Definately a chutney with attitude but really great for those of us who like a little extra zing.
Bad news. It probably wasn’t an apple that tempted Adam. Check Genesis: apples aren’t mentioned anywhere – all we have to go on is ‘fruit’.
Apples in ancient times were bitter and hard: it has taken generations of cultivation to make them sweet and juicy.
Still good for tempting people now though!
not a sweet tooth, so intended to make the chutney for family coming to my wedding in october, with the glut of baking apples in the garden. But i love it! still going to give as pressies, but have you a recipe for a hotter/ spicier way of using apples? a relish that could be kept for a while in pots would be good (not so sweet)