Easy Apricot Chutney Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long should you leave homemade chutney before eating? ›

Once made, chutney can be eaten immediately but the flavours improve and develop if it is left to mature for a couple of weeks or even months. Store your unopened jars in a dry and dark cupboard for best results. Once opened, keep your chutney in the fridge and eat within four weeks.

Apricots are in season from May through July, although sales and prices of apricots remain fairly consistent throughout the year, giving you the flexibility to enjoy them whenever your taste buds crave a touch of sunshine.

Puree the apricots by rubbing them through a fine sieve or food mill set over a bowl, or pulverize them in the jar of an electric blender. With a rubber spatula scrape them into a bowl. Add the vinegar, sugar, honey, paprika and salt and beat vigorously with a spoon or whisk until the mixture is smooth.

Check That The Chutney Is Ready For Potting

If the chutney immediately fills the channel it is not the correct consistency yet, but if the channel is still visible after 2 seconds then the right consistency has been reached.

Vinegar used in making chutney must be good quality and have at least 5% acetic acid content. Any good brand white, malt, wine or cider vinegar should possess the correct qualities. Brown sugar is used for darker coloured chutney but where a lighter colour is required granulated sugar is recommended.

Apricots work well in many savory dishes, particularly next to lamb and poultry, as well as in desserts and confections. Complementary spices include curry, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, and star anise.

Apricot: Pairs well with almonds, anise, apple, black pepper, caramel, cardamom, cinnamon, coconut, cranberry, ginger, hazelnut, honey, lemon, nutmeg, orange, peach, pineapple, plum, rosemary, Sauternes, strawberry, and vanilla.

Rehydration: Dried apricots can be quite dry and chewy, and soaking them in water helps rehydrate the fruit, making it softer and more palatable. Digestibility: Soaking dried fruits can make them easier to digest. The soaking process can break down some of the fibers and make the nutrients more accessible.

Apricot, sometimes known as Armenian plum (derived from a mistaken belief of an Armenian origin), is the common name of Prunus armeniaca L./Armeniaca vulgaris L. The name apricot derives from the Arabic al-birquq through Byzantine Greek berikokkia from Latin malum praecoquum – early ripening fruit.

Apricots are rich in potassium, phosphorus, and beta carotene. They also provide calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamin C, and folate. Antioxidants give apricots their beautiful orange color. Apricots originated in China, where it was first cultivated about 4,000 years ago.

Why are apricots so expensive? ›

Stephen Southwick, a pomologist at the University of California, Davis, and also a fruit grower himself (of among other things pluots, plum-apricot hybrids), said the reason apricots are generally more expensive than other domestic fruits is that "they're more difficult to grow, they're more erratic in their production ...

Wensleydale with Apricots is a popular option as a flavoured cheese on a cheeseboard. Monks began making cheese with sheep milk in Yorkshire during the 12th Century.

White Stilton is blended with dried apricots to combine the mild, fresh flavour of cheese with succulent fruit pieces for a wonderfully sweet and fruity flavour. The milk for White Stilton comes from local farms and goes into production within 24 hours. It is an excellent dessert cheese served with White Zinfandel.

Plumcots are a 50-50 hybrid between plums and apricots. Apriums are an apricot and plum hybrid, but are mostly apricot (typically a 75-25 ratio). Pluots are a plum and apricot hybrid, but are mostly plum (typically a 75-25 ratio).

Cider vinegar and orange juice provide the liquid and the chutney is thickened by the apples and dried fruits as much as by the time spent cooking it. The smaller proportion of vinegar means that the chutney does not need time to mellow and can be eaten straight away.

To seal jars

Fill the hot dry jars right to the top – preserves shrink slightly on cooling and a full jar means less trapped condensation. Seal the jars while still hot. This rule applies to all jams, jellies, pickles and chutneys.

Chutneys get better when left for a few weeks. They mature. So try not to eat them all at once. Be aware that it's often cheaper to buy jars with food in them (such as cheap jam) than empty jam or chutney jars.

Ladle the chutney into sterilised or dishwasher-clean jars (Kilner jars are ideal) and top with paper jam covers. Seal the jars while still hot. Leave to mature for at least a month in a cool dark place.