Green Tomato Chutney

Last year I made what turned out to be an excellent Green Tomato Chutney, from a recipe I found in the DK Encyclopedia of Herbs, Spces and Flavourings, of all places. I made a few modifications to the recipe as I went along, in order to increase the spiciness, and to work around running out of some ingredients.

Of course, now I need to remember what I changed in order to recreate it this year - which is one reason for writing this blog - so I remember to record my experiments!


I think this is what I did last year - we'll find out once it's cooked!

• 2 kg Green Tomatoes, chopped
• 1 kg Cooking Apples, weighed after peeling and coring, chopped
• 375g Onions, peeled and chopped
• 750g Dried Fruit (I used approximately 3/4 Raisins and 1/4 chopped dried Apricots)
• ~1/2 a bulb of Garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 25g Fresh Ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated
• Spices: 3 tsp Pepper, 1 tsp cloves, 3 tsp ginger, 3 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp mace, 1 tsp dried galangal
• 3 heaped dessertspoons Black Treacle (or Blackstrap Molasses for Americans)
• 1.5 kg Sugar
• 3 tbsp Salt
• 1350ml White Vinegar

Put the prepared tomatoes, apples, onions, dried fruit, ginger, garlic, treacle, sugar, and salt into a maslin pan. Grind and add all the spices to the pan too.
Pour about 1/3 of the vinegar into the pan, and cook gently over a low heat, stirring now and then, until the fruit and vegetables have softened and started to pulp down.
Stir in the second 1/3 of the vinegar, and continue to simmer and cook down.
Stir in the last of the vinegar and then boil, stirring, until it thickens.
Pack into warm clean jars and seal as usual.
The yield should be about 12 standard lb jars.
Let mature in the jar for a few weeks before using.

Well, it certainly smelled like last year's chutney as it cooked, and tastes like it too, so I think this is close enough to what I made last year.