Deep and Punchy Yorkshire Tomato Chutney

Yorkshire Tomato Chutney
Yes, it’s a *lot* of chutney

I like having a chutney in Yorkshire Grub’s first round of recipes because it shows that, even though this site is about food that your great grandma would recognise as historically English, we’ve been taking on influences from other cultures for yonks.

Chutney has its origins in India and the word is actually an anglicisation of the word ‘chatni’. There are two types of chutney – freshly-made perparations meant to to be consumed immediately and the cooked variety, intended to be kept for long periods, that’s more familiar in Britain.

The first chutneys made their way to Europe as luxury imports in the late 1600s, and by the 1800s imports were coming in thick and fast (suitably cooled down for English tastes, of course).

Traditional Indian cooked chutneys were often cooked slowly in the hot sun over a number of days, but good luck getting that to work over here. The recipe below is for a stove-top cook, but you could definitely pull out a slow cooker and do it in that.

One of the nice things about chutneys and pickles is their adaptability – so long as you have the balance of veg vs vinegar and sugar right, you can bung whatever you have to hand in. It’s a great way to use up seasonal gluts, so this tomato chutney is perfect for this time of year. Though supermarkets seem unwavering in their determination to sell you six pallid, flavourless tomatoes for 60p, market traders will often give you a huge great bag of deep red fruits for a quid through the summer and early autumn.

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Chutney’s also a great thing to have on hand. As well as slapping it on a cheese sarnie or next to a pork pie, a good chutney will happily perk up a soup or curry. My mum will even use a dollop of it to sweeten and enrich gravy, though for the time being you’ll have to take her word for that rather than mine.

I’ve based this recipe on those from Traditional Yorkshire Recipes (Mrs Appleby, 1982) and Old Recipes of Yorkshire (2002, curated by Ann C. Johnson, recipe by Mrs S. Wakeford c1908) but opted to spice it up a little. It’s still pretty easy on those with milder palates, but has a bit more punch than the sort of stuff mill workers would have eaten 150 years ago. This recipe makes a pretty substantial batch, though, so unless you’re planning on giving a few jars away you might want to think about halving the measurements.

 

Print Recipe
Deep and Punchy Yorkshire Tomato Chutney
A deep, rich chutney that makes the most of the seasonal tomato glut.
Yorkshire Tomato Chutney
Course Side dish
Servings
500ml jars
Ingredients
Course Side dish
Servings
500ml jars
Ingredients
Yorkshire Tomato Chutney
Instructions
  1. Core and chop the apples, simmer in a small amount of water until tender.
  2. Crush your garlic, peel and chop your shallots, grate your ginger, chop the tomatoes (you can remove the skins for a smoother texture if you like, but I find it too time-consuming), juice your lemons.
  3. Add all your ingredients to a large pot and stew over a low heat until soft and thick (4-5 hours).
  4. Stir.
  5. Stir.
  6. Stir again.
  7. Once the time's up, remove it from the heat and dispense into sterilised jars.
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8 comments Add yours
  1. Well done Mark. Very readable and entertaining. I’m the old man and can testify as to how delicious the Knaresborough Picnic Pie was, and filling!

  2. No! I’m the old man! Or perhaps the old lady…..the chutney was good, really good! Just the right side of tangy without that overpowering vinegarlinger! (My word of the day I think) Very good depth which is often missing. Well done you.

  3. Thank you for this! My husband and I went on a hiking trip in the Dales last year and I’ve been looking for the right recipe to recreate the cheese & chutney sandwiches we had along our treks. Gonna cook this up in New Hampshire USA today:-)

  4. Hi, I live in Australia and was just checking out for an “Old Yorkshire Chutney” recipe and found yours. This looks like exactly what I’m wanting to try my hand at, sounds YUMMY! Want to try it to have with “Ploughman’s Lunch” as we seem to be having an extended Summer or early Spring this year since our weather has been so gorgeous and missing out our Autumn. I love making various side spreads for what we call “Picking Plates” for our lunch or when having guests.

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