Thursday 17 September 2020

Don't Try This at Home.......Yet

I wanted a chutney recipe to use and celebrate the  giant red peppers but without using tomatoes (which have nearly finished). Searched my recipe books and found this in my oldest, much splattered preserves book.



But I didn't want a brown chutney so didn't want to use brown vinegar or brown sugar or black treacle and I'm not overly keen on currants,raisins or sultanas in chutney.

So.............

I chopped some onions, cooking apples and 4 giant red peppers and added up the weights. Which came to more or less half the weight of the fruit in the original recipe. I added white sugar and red wine vinegar - using a bit more than half the recipe as it looked too dry - and a little salt .

Cooked it all together until it thickened up and popped into hot sterilised jars. ( I didn't add spices to the jar as per the recipe) Screwed down tight while still hot.

It made 5 jars


and a little left over to taste. Very sweet and sour.

  Because this is a sort-of made up idea for a chutney I have no idea how well it will keep - which is why I say don't try it yet. I'll let you know in a month or three.

There are still some big peppers ripening in the greenhouse and I've already put lots in the freezer, but among my recipes is one for mango and pepper chutney - another one for the Christmas hampers maybe.
 
(See the old metric measurement for vinegar............. 6dl? This book was written way before we went metric and dl's were never used when eventually metric became more common - not even sure what it means.........deci-litres I guess ...........600ml we would say now I think)

Back Tomorrow
Sue

23 comments:

  1. That sounds blimmin lovely and set me off thinking . It never even occurred to me to use 'white vinegar' in chutneys. I may have a bash this week and see what colour it all ends up.

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    1. I use red wine vinegar if the ingredients are red and I want a red chutney and distilled white vinegar for fruity chutneys. Ordinary vinegar for some chutneys too and even cider vinegar in some recipes.

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  2. It's a pint. Do not people think in terms of pints these days? I still do.

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    1. 1 pint - That's what it says!
      I use all sorts of measurements and often mix up metric and English - doesn't seem to matter much

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    2. I didn't read the recipe until after I published the comment. I only read your text and you didn't refer to pint!

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  3. I often tweak recipes, so you should be fine. Vinegar is vinegar, and sugar is sugar {I think} so swapping out you'll just change the flavour, I would have thought. Let us know!

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    1. It was more about the amount of vinegar to weight and texture of fruit/veg. It should be OK.

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  4. Living in a country where metric measurements have been used more than decades, dl is the basic measurement (like 5dl flour). 1dl is 100ml or 0,1litre, so it's easier to "see" the amount if it's whole single number.
    But the usage of measurements goes as this:
    pinch of something (usually considered 1ml but this is something that everyone decides themselves)
    teaspoon
    tablespoon
    dl
    litre

    And weights: grams and kilograms (grams until its 1kg or over).

    Might be a bit boring, but it's easy if you have boring decimal system brains) ;-)

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    1. Metric here uses only ml and Litres for liquids. Grams and Kg for weight and mm and Metres for measuring. We seem to not use the in between bits like cm and dl.

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  5. Too late Sue I made a very similar chutney yesterday, got a bag of red peppers reduced at the co op, substituted brown sugar with white and used white wine vinegar. The recipe said it keeps for up to 12 months so yours should be fine. Great minds think alike, love your blog xx

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    1. Thank you for reading and commenting. It's always a worry when I concoct a recipe and put it on the blog in case it doesn't keep well

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  6. I have never heard of dl. You learn something new every day!

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    1. It's funny how we never use that measurement ....going straight from ml to litres.

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  7. Here, try my Aunty Jeans Pretty Pickle: 6 cups of cubed cucumber (that's about a 2 litre ice-cream box) 1/4 cup plain salt, 4 onions very finely diced, 2 green peppers in small cubes, 2-4 red peppers (same), 3 cups sugar, 1 tsp mustard seed, 1 tsp celery seed, 1/2 tsp tumeric, 2 cups white vinegar, 4 level tablespoons cornflour, 1/4 cup water.
    Cut the cuc's lengthwise and scoop out the seeds, cut into long strips then cut crosswise (small cubes) - make all the other vege into pieces about the same size. Sprinkle the salt on the cucumber and let it stand for about 30 minutes. Rinse and drain the cuc, and put all the ingredients except the cornflour and water into a large pot and bring to the boil stirring often. When boiling vigorously thicken it with the cornflour and water, pour it into hot jars and seal. Can be eaten more or less immediately but does improve with a couple of weeks of aging.

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  8. My mother used to make brilliant sweet green tomato chutney with the green tomatoes left in our greenhouse at the end of summer. Thinking back to childhood it tasted divine - wish I had asked her for the recipe.

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    1. I recently made this recipe for green tomato chutney with some of my end of season green tomatoes: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/green_tomato_chutney/
      The only substitution I made was using dried sweetened cranberries, as I didn't have raisins or sultanas. I thought it was quite good. Carol - a reader in Philadelphia, PA

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    2. I used to always make green tomato chutney - Colin loved it but as it's not a favourite I don't do it now.

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  9. That sounds delicious! I made green tomato chutney once years ago, and as I recall the jars had to "age" for months before using. Then I had to figure out what to use it for, as I had never tasted chutney in my life! Took a little experimenting, but the answer was pork - oh my goodness, that chutney served with pork was delicious. And I still remember how wonderful the kitchen smelled when I was making it. I've never since had such an abundance of green tomatoes at the end of the season, but if I ever do, I will try to make that same chutney again.

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  10. It sounds and looks lovely. I hope that it works out well for you.

    God bless.

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  11. It looks and sounds fantastic,. thanks. I bet it will keep and improve.
    xx

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  12. It sounds lovely, and I see no reason why it shouldn't keep well and mature with age. But you will have to keep us posted as to how long it lasts now you've mentioned it :-)

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  13. I'm curious so know how it will keep. We have loads of red peppers in the greenhouse and piles of apples lurking in the garden.

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