Tomato Chutney

I get through a lot of  ‘red tomato chutney’ so stocking up with this year’s tomatoes was a priority. This year I have made it in batches of 2lb of tomatoes as they ripened, rather than waiting to make a larger quantity at a time, and I got it off to an art by the time I reached the 6th batch! It is meant to be suitable green tomatoes as well, but I haven’t tried it. The recipe came from a Margaret Patten’s ‘500 Recipes for Jams, Pickles, Chutneys’ (Hamlyn), which cost 35p in the 1970s. The recipe gives a cooking time of 40 minutes for ripe tomatoes, 50-55 for green tomatoes, but I would say it takes longer if you want to make sure your chutney is not too runny. Apologies for recipe only being in imperial units!

1tsp picking spice
8oz finely chopped onions
½ pint malt vinegar
8oz apples, peeled, cored and chopped
2lb tomatoes, green or red, skinned and sliced
1 rounded tsp mustard powder
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
8oz sultanas – optional (I don’t add them)
8 oz sugar

1. Put pickling spice in a piece of muslin
2. Put onion in pan with a few tbs of the vinegar and simmer till soft
3. Add apples, tomatoes, spices and sultanas if using
4. Simmer until quite soft, stirring occasionally
5. Add remainder of sugar and rest of vinegar
6. When sugar is dissolved, boil steadily until the consistency of jam
7. Remove bag of spices and put in sterilised jars in the usual way.