The spirit of cookery

Chutnees* are compounds of sweet and acid fruit with sugar and spices. They perform the function of sharp sauces and of salads at the same time, and may be termed the little hors-d’oeuvres of the curry service. They used to accompany curries, and were served on small plates along with the rice. But with the disappearance of curries from the bill-of-fare of modern dinners, chutnees also have fallen into desuetude, owing probably to excess of spices with which makers used to impregnate them. Fresh chutnees should be served in saucers upon a tray, and several varieties may be presented for selection. Caviare, dressed with a little lemon-juice and a trace of cayenne pepper ; other roes of fish pounded with a little butter ; potted prawns, potted ham, crab paste, lobster paste, and sardine paste, can accompany the chutnees. Tomato Ghutnee is made with the pulp of the love-apple, some onion, celery, green chillies, all chopped, and salt and vinegar. It differs from an ordinary salad only by the absence of oil. * Cf. for Gen. Observ., 'Wyvern,' loc. cit. Cucumber Chutney is analogous, but oil is added, and the vinegar is mixed with sugar. Bunjal Chutnee is made with the pulp of the boiled bunjal. Cocoanut Chutnee is made with the pulp of the pounded cocoanut. Mint Chutney should be made with scalded mint, and sweetened. Cranberry Chutnee is made of preserved cranberries, made mustard, and pounded preserved ginger. Cranberry and Tamarind Chutnee has tamarind - pulp added to the former, also chillies and mustard-seed. Mashed-potato Chutney obtains its flavour by the addition of minced onions, green chillies, salt, pepper, vinegar, and some sugar to mashed potato. We are in possession of a number of recipes extracted from Anglo-Indian records. Products very similar to those described in these recipes are sold as preserves in trade. Mango Chutney is the most pleasing and original recipe, from the late Captain McMorind, dated Mussoorie, May, 1810. Next come Mango and Tamarind Chutnee {Ameer Khans). • Apx)le Chutnee (called Davidson’s). Gooseberry CMitnee (recipe from the late Captain J. E. Troup). All these contain, besides the fruit mentioned in the name, currants or raisins, ginger, red pepper or chillies, garlic, mustard-seed, sugar, and vinegar. Grand Salad, an Old English Chutnee. Joan Cromwell's Grand Salad* is composed of equal parts of almonds, raisins, capers, pickled cucumber, shrimps, and boiled turnips. It may be made with cream, oiled butter, some good jelly of meat, Florence oil, and flavoured with salad mixture, vinegar, lemon and herbs. It is best classified * Ex Kitchiner, ‘Oracle,’ p. 265. with the chutneys as solid sauces, but with these might also be ranged under salads, to which it forms an evident transition. The fact that this salad bears the name of the daughter of the Protector proves that these confections are not so exclusively Indian as some would have us to assume. The original mustard, a confection of powdered sinapis-seed with condensed fruit-juice, or must, and which was so closely associated with the seed that it transferred its name to it, and even to the plant, was also a chutney until, to its great deterioration, the fruity ingredient was left out. Curry (Kari) Powders and Pastes.