How to make apple chutney

The collapse problem

A Bramley is bred to fall apart. Its cells break down readily under heat, which is exactly what makes it the right apple for a sauce or a crumble and the wrong one for a chutney with texture.

There are two answers. Use eating apples, or a firm-cooking variety, which hold their shape through an hour of simmering. Or use Bramleys cut into large chunks and accept that some will collapse into the base while the rest stay recognisable — which is actually a good texture, and a common approach.

A mixture of both is best of all: some cooking apple to thicken the body, some eating apple to stay in pieces.

The method

One pan, an hour and a half. FoodHQ does not publish keeping times, acidity figures or jar-processing schedules. In the UK the Food Standards Agency is the authority on whether and how a sealed preserve is safe to store — follow its guidance on sterilising, sealing and storing.

1. Peel, core and chop the apples into large chunks — around two centimetres. Smaller and they disappear.
2. Chop onions, and grate or finely chop ginger and garlic.
3. Put everything into a wide stainless steel or enamel pan with vinegar, sugar, salt, sultanas and whole spices tied in muslin.
4. Bring to a simmer and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, for an hour or more.
5. Stir more often as it thickens. The sugar content means it catches easily at the end.
6. Apply the channel test: a spoon drawn across the base should leave a channel that stays open.
7. Remove the spice bag, pot into hot sterilised jars with vinegar-proof lids, and leave it. A chutney tastes raw and vinegary when it is first potted and mellows considerably over weeks. Judging it on the day you make it is the commonest reason people conclude they do not like their own chutney.

Variations

• Apple and green tomato, which is the classic end-of-season chutney and uses two gluts at once.
• Apple and pear, in equal parts, which is milder and rounder.
• Apple and date, which is sweeter and thickens beautifully.
• Apple and beetroot, which is earthy and turns a striking colour.
• Apple and chilli, for something with heat behind the sweetness.
• With mustard seed and turmeric, in the piccalilli direction.
• With cider vinegar rather than malt, which is gentler and suits apple better.

Choices that matter

Cooking apples

Bramley and similar collapse. Good for body, poor for texture. Cut them large.

Eating apples

Hold their shape. Use windfalls and anything bruised — cut the damage out and the rest is fine.

Vinegar

Cider vinegar for a gentler chutney; malt for a traditional dark British one.

Sugar

Demerara or light muscovado gives depth and colour. White sugar keeps it paler.

Sultanas

Nearly standard. They plump, sweeten and thicken.

Common questions