Indian Apple Chutney

This Indian Apple Chutney for home canning is a traditional dark, thick, rich chunky sweet and sour chutney.

Use as an accompaniment to curries, rice, lamb, cheese with crusty breads, etc. Mix some into fat-free sour cream or fat-free yoghurt for a quick, healthy dip, or mix some into low-fat cream cheese for a delicious spread on celery sticks or crackers of your choice.

This recipe makes a lot. You can easily just cut the recipe in half, or make the full batch in November for rich, exotic Christmas gifts the following month. Your yield will vary based on how juicy or dry the apples were.

This is one of those recipes that tastes best after being allowed a bit of time for the flavours to develop and marry in the jar after canning.

The Recipe

If you wish to adjust batch size, do the math first on paper.

Jar size choices: Quarter-litre (½ US pint / 250 ml / 8 oz) OR half-litre (1 US pint / 500 ml/ 16 oz)

Processing method: Either water-bath or steam canning

Yield: 10 x half-litre (US pint) jars

Headspace: 2 cm (½ inch)

Processing time: 10 minutes either size jar

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Indian apple chutney

Yield: 10 x half-litre (US pint)

Course Condiments

Cuisine American

Keyword Apples

Prep Time 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 2 hours hours 5 minutes minutes

Servings 10 x half-litre (US pint)

Calories 43kcal

Metric - US Customary

Ingredients

• 1 kg apples (2 US quarts / 2 lbs. Measured after prep. Before prep: 1.3 kg / 2 ¾lbs / 10 to 12 medium apples.
• 150 g onion (1 cup / 5 oz / 1 medium-large. Measured after prep.)
• 150 g red bell pepper (1 cup / 5 oz / 1 medium-large. Measured after prep.)
• 1 kg raisins (7 cups / 2 lbs)
• 3 tablespoons mustard seed
• 2 tablespoons ginger (ground)
• 2 teaspoons allspice (ground)
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 2 teaspoons pickling salt
• 2 hot peppers (seeded and minced)
• 1 clove garlic (peeled, minced)
• 750 g brown sugar (4 cups, regular pack / 24 oz)
• 1 litre malt vinegar (5% acidity or higher. 4 cups / 32 oz)

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

• Wash, peel, core and chop the apple.
• Put in a large pot that can hold at least 6 to 8 litres (quarts).
• Wash the onion, peel, chop, add to pot.
• Wash the pepper, seed, chop and add to pot.
• Add to pot all remaining ingredients down to and including the malt vinegar.
• Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered until thick, stirring frequently to avoid getting a burnt bottom. How long will depend on how juicy your apples were, really. Anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes, or a bit more. (Bear in mind, though, that it will thicken upon cooling.)
• Pack hot into quarter-litre (½ US pint) jars or half-litre (US pint) jars.
• Leave 2 cm (½ inch) headspace for either size jar.
• Debubble, adjust headspace.
• Wipe jar rims.
• Put lids on.
• Process in a water bath or steam canner.
• Process either size jar for 10 minutes; increase time as needed for your altitude.
• Best after at least a month of jar time.

Nutrition

Serving: 2g | Calories: 43kcal | Carbohydrates: 10.8g | Protein: 0.3g | Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 1mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 9g

Reference information

How to water bath process.

How to steam can.

When water-bath canning or steam canning, you must adjust the processing time for your altitude.

Australia and New Zealand vinegar strength special notes.

Recipe notes

• Do not cut back on the high acid items (the apples, raisins, vinegar), and don’t increase the amount of low acid things (the onion, the pepper). The acidic balance here is for safety.
• Instead of the clove of garlic, you can use ½ teaspoon from a jar of non-oiled minced garlic, or about 1 teaspoon garlic powder, to taste.
• Instead of 2 small hot red chiles, you could use 2 teaspoons chile flake. If you want less heat, cut back on chile flake; if you want more, you can add more chile flake.
• Instead of malt vinegar, you can use 5% apple cider vinegar (or half and half.) It will be milder.
• Instead of the salt, you can use a non-bitter, non-clouding salt sub. We have found Herbamare Sodium-Free performs well in that regard.
• You can reduce the sugar, or use the same volume amount of granulated Splenda®, or use 4 teaspoons of liquid stevia. For stevia, we’d recommend Better Stevia liquid stevia .
• It will come out quite dark from the raisins and malt vinegar, but if you want it even more mysteriously darker, add a teaspoon or two of Kitchen Bouquet.
• To avoid scorching, a heat diffuser can be of help.
• If you have sumac powder, a souring spice, to hand, you may wish to add up to 2 teaspoons to give the chutney a bit more of a sour balance.

Recipe source

Curried Apple Chutney. In: Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving. Daleville, Indiana: Hearthmark LLC. Edition 36. 2013. Page 51

(In the next edition, 37th edition, 2014, page 82, Ball cut the recipe in half.)

Modifications made:

• Suggested malt vinegar of same or higher acidity in for extra robustness of taste, but white or cider vinegar (5% or higher) is fine.

With a pH of around 3.7, Ball has given us yet another well and truly safe recipe for canning.

Nutrition information

Regular version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml

• 43 calories, 34 mg sodium

Sugar and salt-free version

Per 2 tablespoons / 30 ml

• 25 calories, 1 mg sodium
• Weight Watchers PointsPlus®: 1 to 4 tablespoons: 1 point; 5 to 7 tablespoons: 2 points.

* Nutrition info provided by https://caloriecount.about.com

* PointsPlus™ calculated by healthycanning.com. Not endorsed by Weight Watchers® International, Inc, which is the owner of the PointsPlus® registered trademark.

* Better Stevia ® is a registered trademark of the NOW Foods Company.

* Herbamare ® is a registered trademark of the A. Vogel Corporation.

* Pickle Crisp ® is a registered trademark of the Jarden Corporation.