Quick chutney questions

chickadee

Hi everyone. If anyone can help me it will be you guys. I very proudly harvested my home-grown tomatoes yesterday and took off all the tomatoes, including the green ones as I'm conscious that if we get a frost they will be no use to man or beast. I decided to make green tomato chutney and got a recipe and set to work this afternoon. I carefully chopped and put in ginger, raisins, apples, etc, etc. Then I set it to gently simmer. Then I forgot about it! :eek:

I have taken what is left of it out of the pan without scraping the burnt stuff off the bottom. It had simmered for about 2 hours in total. Can I salvage what is left? Do you think it will be cooked enough? It looks like Branston pickle now, not swimming in vinegar anyway.

Advice welcome.

squeaky

Does it taste all right? Or does it have a nice charcoal aftertaste?

chickadee

Wow I'm amazed! It tastes like spicy pickly stuff, no charcoal after taste. It will be bottled forthwith. It's a pity I lost a load of it in the bottom of the pan. Message to self....don't go on internet whilst making chutney in future!

squeaky

LOL Glad it worked out OK.

AussieLass

I don't know if this is correct or not but my Aunty gave me a bottle of green tomato chutney a while back. She had just freshly made it and told me I had to wait three to four weeks before using it or we would all get a tummy ache. It was really nice. I've always made tomato chutney with the ripe tomatoes.
Maybe she was just pulling my leg but I did wait.

chickadee

Although I am no expert (as you can tell) I understand that it matures after a few weeks into something even better than when first made when, according to my recipe, it tastes sugary and vinegary. I plan to keep mine for a few weeks and enjoy it over christmas with a huge chunk of ripe stilton Mmmmmmmm

Dobie

I've got (rather a large) marrow in my veggie box this week & DH HATES it with a passion. He does love sauces & chutneys though so I did a search & have decided to have a go at Glad's recipie for marrow chutney tomorrow (thanks Glad).
I'm writing my shopping list & saw that I have plenty of mixed spice but the recipie says allspice - is that a very different thing?
I don't want to buy something else if it'll do but as it's my first attempt at chutney I don't want to experiment without advice from you wise people.
Thanks in advance.
Dobie
xx

newleaf

Yes, it is a different thing. Mixed spice is a mixture of different spices and Allspice is this: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/sr_allspice.htm
HTH

Dobie

Thanks newleaf - I'll add it to my list

JoeyEmma

I made some chutney in the summer and put it in big 2lb jars. I've just opened it and it tastes delicious. I'd like to give some away as presents, however I only made 3 jars, and don't want to give it all away! I have some smaller empty jars. Would it be ok to sterilise the jars and decant it into smaller jars or not?

Seakay

If you want to create a seal then sterilise the jars and reboil the chutney to go in them.
If you think that the chutney will be eaten quite soon (ie within a couple of months) then decant unheated chutney into sterilised but cold jars; the vinegar will be an adequate preservative.
The main thing to remember is: hot jars for hot product, cold jars for cold product, and only put the lids on while the product is either hot or cold (never tepid).