Every autumn arrives with the same arithmetic. There are more apples, plums, tomatoes and marrows than anyone wants to eat this week, and in three weeks there will be none. Preserving is how you move food from the month that has too much into the month that has too little.
Chutney is the best place to start because it is the most forgiving thing in the preserving repertoire. It wants fruit that is slightly past its best, it does not mind if your quantities drift, and the vinegar and sugar do the safety work for you.
The chutney ratio
You can make chutney from almost anything with this shape, by weight:
- 1kg fruit or vegetables, chopped small. Apples, plums, green tomatoes, marrow, pears, beetroot, or a mixture of whatever is looking tired.
- 250g onion, finely chopped.
- 300ml vinegar of at least 5% acidity. Cider or malt for apples and plums, white wine for lighter fruit.
- 250g sugar. Dark brown for depth, white if you want the fruit to stay bright.
- 2 tsp salt, plus spices: mustard seed, coriander, chilli, ginger, a cinnamon stick, a few cloves.
Sweat the onion in a little oil, add everything else, bring to a simmer and leave it. It takes between one and two hours, uncovered, with an occasional stir so nothing catches at the bottom.
How to tell when it is done
Drag a wooden spoon across the base of the pan. If the channel it leaves fills back in immediately, keep going. If it holds open for a second or two before closing, the chutney is ready. Remember that it thickens further as it cools, so stop a little earlier than feels right.
Taste it now and expect it to be aggressive. Fresh chutney is sharp and the spices are unblended. It needs at least a month in the jar, preferably three, before the vinegar settles down and the thing tastes like chutney rather than hot pickle.
Jars, properly
Wash jars in hot soapy water, rinse, and dry them in an oven at 120°C for fifteen minutes. Lids go in boiling water, not the oven, because the seals will not thank you for dry heat. Fill the jars while both the chutney and the jars are hot, leaving a centimetre of headspace, and seal immediately.
Use lids with a plastic or lacquered coating. Bare metal corrodes against vinegar, and after a year you get a rusty lid and a spoiled jar. Label every jar with what it is and the date, because in February a shelf of dark brown jars is a mystery.
What chutney is not
Chutney keeps because it is both acidic and sugary. That combination is what makes it shelf stable, and it is exactly why you should not improvise your way into other preserves.
- Vegetables in plain brine or oil are not chutney and are not shelf stable. They live in the fridge.
- Low-acid preserves such as bottled beans or vegetable purées need a pressure canner. A water bath cannot make them safe.
- If you cut the sugar or the vinegar you have changed the preserve, not just the flavour. Follow a tested ratio for anything going in a cupboard.
The rest of the October list
Fruit butter. Apples or plums cooked down with a little sugar and lemon until thick and glossy. Less sugar than jam, so it goes in the fridge or the freezer rather than the cupboard.
Slow-roasted tomatoes. Halve, salt, oil, 120°C for three hours. Freeze them flat on a tray, then bag them. In January they taste like a different season, which is the entire point.
Frozen soft fruit. Spread on a tray, freeze hard, then bag. Loose berries that do not fuse into a single block are worth the extra ten minutes.
Apple sauce. Windfalls, a splash of water, no sugar. Freezes in portions and turns up next to pork, porridge and yoghurt all winter.
Herb oil and pesto. The last basil and parsley, blitzed with oil, frozen in an ice cube tray. Keep it frozen rather than in a jar on the side, for the botulism reasons we set out in the pickling guide.
What to do first if you only have an hour
Freeze. It is faster than any other method, it needs no equipment, and it preserves flavour better than most things you can do with heat. Chutney is for the fruit that is genuinely too far gone to freeze well, and for the shelf of presents you will be glad of in December.