Preserving the Harvest

LATE SUMMER NECTARINE OR PLUM CHUTNEY

Preserving is one of the things I love to do most, chutney is by far the easiest and a perfect place to use ripe, bruised or seconds fruit and vegetables and any home pot will do – except copper. Whilst I love copper for jam making, chutney with it’s use of vinegar is too acidic.

In chutney, the preserving agent is sugar and vinegar.  I like to use Apple Cider Vinegar with Rapadura sugar as the sweetener as my general rule but could be tempted to another vinegar depending on the fruit (sherry, raspberry spring to mind). Sometimes I like the fruity tone and complexity that an apple juice concentrate provides, and given that chutney’s are used in small amounts, I’m okay with that use of fructose. BUT, and there is a but. Chutney made with a juice concentrate or Rapadura (a low sucrose content) will require a BOILING WATER BATH (we will talk more about that later) to ensure preservation. Made with brown sugar (even the beautiful semi refined Billingtons Muscovado’s) and thus with a higher sucrose content, they will be fine simply packed very, very hot into a clean, dry, sterile and warm jars.

But let’s talk actually making the chutney yes? Dead easy. I like my chutneys to have a bright fruity flavour but with depth and fullness of flavour. I rarely follow a recipe and would like to guide you along that same path. You will get a better result as every bit of fruit you use will be different – all cooking is in essence responding the the raw ingredients nature has grown for you. Fundamentally the fruit forms the base of the chutney (or vegetable), the liquid is that which comes from the fruit and the preserving agents sugar and vinegar. Sweetness and further depth of flavour is ensured with some dried fruit. This is then tempered with a bit of onion for flavour and depth (I’m a bit iffy on garlic) and most definitely ginger. Lots of ginger. Then nuanced with spices – I consider allspice an essential for chutney. This is a spice in it’s own right, and not similar to mixed spice. Then depending on what I’m making, I will choose the spices to suit. That’s it. oh, and chilli (but please be careful – I think people overdo chilli in a chutney and it overwhelms).

I’m going to give you a guide line to make chutney, but if you’d like an actual recipe, you can find Pear Chutney here. 

• I start by choosing a pot that will fit the amount of fruit I have – I am looking for the fruit to be approximately 2/3 up the side of the pot. Preferably one that is not to wide as this allows too much evaporation. Wash your fruit and chop – a size to suit you, but ensure that any bruised or damaged bits are discarded. But the wetter the fruit (berries, stone fruit etcetera) the bigger the pieces can be.

• Add a small amount of onion – I do like purple onion for fruits, I think it gives depth with sweetness.You can see in the picture above it’s not overwhelmed with onion. Then chop up a whole lot of fresh ginger – I like nice biggish bits as you can see.

• Add 1/2 – 1 cup of dried fruit – I like a raisin, as I think it has a deeper and more complex flavour, especially the muscats. But depending on the fruit, others might give a better end result – for example dates with oranges. Nope, you don’t have to chop them up.

• Add your spices. Definitely allspice – the berries, or the ground – I would start with 1/2 teaspoon for 1 kg of fruit and go from there. Cinnamon quills are brilliant, start with one. For this nectarine chutney I chose to use Garam Masala as I love it’s play of peppery and spicy complexity, and added extra ground coriander just because I think ground coriander is beautiful with stone fruits.

• Then add a good amount of apple cider vinegar – enough to give the dish enough liquid to start, with equal amount of sugar – whichever you are using, or apple juice concentrate (you can see the amount of liquid I start with above).

• Then cover it with a lid and cook over a gentle heat until the juices have sweat out from the fruit – not too long, approx 15 – 20 minutes. Then assess if it needs more liquid – you need enough just about cover the fruit and saturate their cells. Go carefully adding more vinegar, and add in increments – you can always add more, but hard to take away. As you add vinegar, add sweetness to match. Then assess if it needs more sweetness, balancing the acidity or vice versa. Leave the lid off and continue to cook at a gentle simmer – blip, blip – too much boil and you will evaporate that liquid. After about 20 minutes, taste it to see again where the acid/sweetness flavour and liquid ratio is at. Adjust as needed, and also taste for spices and add as desired.

• How to know that it’s cooked? You are looking to see that the fruit is saturated – it looks markedly different from fruit that is not cooked, or not saturated enough with the preserving mediums of vinegar and sugar. When it’s at that stage, you can then reduce it down to the consistency that you are after. A small chutney batch of approx 1 kg will take about 40 – 60 minutes.

• I check, taste and adjust frequently when making chutney – for amount of liquid, acid/sweetness balance and spice.

Now you have your chutney. If you have made it with a generic brown sugar (NOT recommended as it is highly refined – thus not good for you –  and won’t add depth of flavour) or the semi refined Billingtons Muscovado (I like the Light Muscovado) you can simply funnel the very hot chutney into clean, dry, sterile and warm jars (make sure they are on wood/towels or thick paper so they don’t crack) and lid them. Leave to sit for at least 8 hours -you should hear them audibly ‘pop’ as the lid is pulled down during the vacuum formation, show a visible concave centre and then store them. The heat will give you enough of a vacuum.  But, if you’ve used a fruit juice concentrate or rapadura, that won’t stop the decay process. They will be fine in the fridge for some weeks but not in the pantry. So, you have to use a boiling water bath.

The boiling water bath is the tool (rather than the ingredient) that you use to preserve the chutney.

This is one of the most interesting techniques – we know it here in Australia as the Vacola system. In essence, what we are doing when we bottle, is to use heat and an enclosed system to destroy micro-organisms that cause food to spoil and create a vacuum in which remaining bacteria cannot grow. Food is packed into a bottle, a seal (originally rubber) is placed around the rim, then a lid is placed, using a clamping system to keep it closed. The Vacola system uses rubber rings with clamps placed on, the French have the rubber seals on the lids with the clamp attached to the lid. As the closed jar goes into water and is heated to a specific temperature (or in this case, boiling) air is forced out through the rubber, bacteria (and such) are killed, and when removed a vacuum seal occurs as the jar cools. When it’s fully cooled the clamps are removed – it is the vacuum seal that keeps air and bacteria out. Newer systems (mostly used in Europe and the U.S, but used now extensively here in Australia) have the lid and rubber formed into one – using a sealing compound around the edges. This is the creamy “paint” that you see on lids and specifically the fine, more darkly coloured ring closer to the edge. Many of the U.S systems (Ball etc) separate that lid into two: a top and screw section. Glass (only tempered) jars can be re used (if in pristine condition), but lids and rings must be new for each bottling. A special note must be made here that preserving, and especially bottling and the hot or boiling water bath,  is all about understanding acidity. Clostridium botulinum (extremely toxic) grows in the absence of air (a vacuum), low acidity and a moist environment. Fruits are generally high in acidity, vegetables and especially meats, low acidity. Here with chutney’s you’ve got plenty of acidity, but the process I am recommending is only relevant here for your chutney.

In regards to the pot the Fowlers Vacola is a commercial example of a hot or boiling water bath (just in case you are confused about the terms hot /or boiling water bath. In a hot water bath– the water comes 2/3^rd up the sides of the jar, and takes a much longer time for preservation.In a boiling water bath – water is below, around and above the jar, and preservation is achieved in a much shorter time). The Fowlers Vacola preserving pot/system is not absolutely necessary – you can use any big (large) pot, AS LONG AS IT IS DEEP ENOUGH FOR THE WATER TO COVER THE TOPS OF THE JARS AND HAVE SPACE TO BOIL FREELY. ALLOW APPROX 12 CM  ABOVE THE JAR TOPS FOR BRISK BOILING.  Basically, the Fowlers Vacola system is a large pot – for a hot water bath it has a well-positioned thermometer, and for a boiling water bath, it has enough room.

With a stockpot, a few precautions must be taken to protect the jars from cracking. A wire rack must be placed on the bottom of the pot to keep the jars from direct contact with the heat, and to ensure the movement of boiling water around the bottom of the jar. Some people wrap the jars in paper or cloth to prevent rattling, but I have never done this. The American system is different and brilliant – it has a basket that holds the jars and is so easy to use – it’s available on – line in Australia, coming as a kit (which is worth getting) and you can find it here. Once you get there, you will need to click onto Preserving Kits from the side index. I couldn’t get it to link straight up for you.

Now you are set with understanding the role of the boiling water bath, and your chutney is done, this is what you do next. Bring your pot of water nearly to the boil.

Remove the clean, dry jars and lids from the oven (they should be warm), keeping them on their trays, and ladle the hot chutney into the jars, using a funnel. Place the lids on the jars, then screw on. Make sure the water isn’t boiling as you lower the chutney into it. As a note:it’s important that you put warm chutney into warm jars, otherwise if the filled jar is too cold it will crack when it hits the nearly boiling water.

Using special tongs, lower the jars into the not far off boiling water (or if you have the American basket system, place in the basket). Boil for 12 minutes, starting that timing from when the water comes back to the boil. When done, using the same tongs, remove and place the jars on a towel or wooden surface. Let them sit until totally cool – at least 8 hours.

If you are using a screw top lid system, they should pop audibly as they cool – this is the sound of the lid being sucked down as the vacuum forms. If you are using a screw top lid system or the Vacola system there should be a concave dent in the middle of the lid (for Vacola this is visible when the clamps are taken off). If this has not occurred, store in the fridge and use soonish.