How to make onion chutney

The sweetness is made, not added

Onions are around five per cent sugar, and cooked slowly enough that sugar caramelises and the harsh sulphur compounds break down. What starts as a pungent raw allium becomes deeply sweet, brown and jammy.

This takes far longer than most recipes admit. Genuinely caramelised onions need forty-five minutes to an hour over a low heat, stirring occasionally — not the "ten minutes until golden" that recipes routinely claim.

Rushing it is the single reason home-made onion chutney disappoints. Onions cooked fast go brown at the edges and stay sharp in the middle, and no amount of sugar afterwards fixes it.

The method

The first stage is the one that matters. 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. Slice the onions thinly and evenly. Red onions give a better colour; brown onions give more flavour. A mixture works well.
2. Cook them in a little butter or oil over a low heat with a pinch of salt, stirring every few minutes. Give them forty-five minutes at least.
3. They are ready when they are deep golden brown, collapsed, sweet and jammy. If they are still pale and separate, keep going.
4. Add sugar — demerara or muscovado — and let it dissolve and darken for a few minutes.
5. Add vinegar, salt and any aromatics: thyme, bay, black pepper, a splash of red wine, a little chilli.
6. Simmer uncovered for twenty to thirty minutes until thick and glossy and the channel test passes.
7. Pot into hot sterilised jars with vinegar-proof lids. 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, and what to eat it with

• Red onion and balsamic, which is the standard shop version and easy to better at home.
• With thyme and red wine, cooked down, which is the most useful savoury version.
• With chilli and star anise, for something sharper.
• Shallot rather than onion, which is sweeter and more delicate and considerably more work to peel.
• On a cheeseboard, which is where most of it goes. Particularly good with hard sheep's cheese and blue cheese.
• In a sausage roll or a cheese and onion pasty.
• On a burger or a steak sandwich, where it does the job of both relish and onion.
• With pâté or a terrine.

Notes

Time

Forty-five minutes to an hour on the onions alone. This is the whole recipe.

Pan

Wide and heavy. A crowded pan steams the onions instead of caramelising them.

Salt early

A pinch at the start draws water out and speeds the process.

Sugar

Muscovado gives depth; demerara is cleaner. Both work.

Yield

Onions reduce dramatically. Two kilos gives surprisingly few jars.

Common questions