Apple sauce for goose and pork
Apple sauce for goose and pork is a plain English accompaniment: cooked apples pulped with water, then sweetened with sugar and finished with a little butter.
Bengal chetney sauce
Chetney sauce, Bengal receipt · Chetney sauce (Modern Cookery for Private Families)
Eliza Acton's Bengal receipt for chetney sauce: stoned raisins and a hard acid fruit pounded with brown sugar, ginger, salt, cayenne and garlic, then thinned with vinegar to the consistence of thick cream.
Overview
Bengal chetney is Acton's name for a sharp, sweet and hot sauce of raisins and a hard sour fruit, sharpened with vinegar and spiced with ginger, cayenne and garlic. It is one of the chutney-type sauces in the store-sauce chapter of Modern Cookery for Private Families.
The recipe is a British cook's version. Acton does not describe it as an Indian method, and it should not be read as one.
Sources for this section
Method in the source
The raisins and the acid fruit are chopped and pounded. The brown sugar, ginger, salt and cayenne are ground separately in a mortar and then worked into the fruit one at a time. Vinegar is added slowly until the sauce has the consistence of thick cream, and the sauce is bottled with the garlic.
The first sentence of the recipe names crab apples or sour apples and unripe bullaces, with a note that any hard acid fruit will do. The mango, which Acton says is used in India, is one of the fruits she lists as an alternative.
Sources for this section
Variants and keeping
Acton gives a second Bengal chetney built on gooseberries, tamarinds, green apples, salt, raisins, brown sugar, ginger, chilies and garlic, with a pint and a half of vinegar and the juice of three large lemons. She also says that ripe red chilies and tomatoes are mixed into the sauce in some versions.
She advises that the sauce keeps better if it is left in gentle heat for a week or two, either beside the fire, in the sun or in a very slow oven, in a jar or in bottles kept well sealed from the air. These are her instructions. This page records them and does not test them.
Sources for this section
History
Acton gives the sauce under the heading Bengal Receipt in Modern Cookery for Private Families. She calls it a favourite oriental sauce compounded in many ways, and says some acid fruit is essential to it. The recipe records a British cookery writer's version of a South Asian style of sauce, not a definitive account of Indian chutney.
Ingredients
Stoned raisinschopped small
113 g4 oz as recorded
Crab apples or other hard acid fruitsour apples or unripe bullaces may be used; chopped small and pounded well
227 g½ lb as recorded
Coarse brown sugarground fine in a mortar
113 g4 oz as recorded
57 g2 oz as recorded
Saltground fine in a mortar
57 g2 oz as recorded
Cayenne pepperground fine in a mortar
57 g2 oz as recorded
Garlicdivided into cloves, put into the bottles
28 g1 oz as recorded
Vinegar
Amount not stated
added gradually until the sauce is the consistence of thick creamMethod
- Stone four ounces of good raisins and chop them small with half a pound of crab apples, sour apples, unripe bullaces or another hard acid fruit.
- Grind the brown sugar, powdered ginger, salt and cayenne separately in a mortar, as fine as possible.
- Pound the fruit well, then mix in the spices one by one.
- Beat everything together until the mixture is perfectly blended.
- Add vinegar gradually until the sauce has the consistence of thick cream.
- Put the sauce into bottles with an ounce of garlic divided into cloves, and cork it tightly.
Places
United Kingdom
Historical attestation · Country evidenceRecipe in a British cookery book; it attests Acton's adaptation, not an Indian chutney tradition.
India
Documented use · Country evidenceActon's note says the mango is used for this sauce in India. The recipe itself is not an Indian method.
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Sources
Internet Archive (full-text copy)Method · Variants · History
Modern cookery for private familiesChetney sauce, Bengal receipt: stoned raisins and crab apples, sour apples, unripe bullaces or other hard acid fruit, with coarse brown sugar, powdered ginger, salt and cayenne ground separately, pounded with the fruit, vinegar added to thick-cream consistence, bottled with an ounce of garlic in cloves.
Note: the mango is used in India; gooseberries, tamarinds, green apples, chilies and tomatoes appear in variants; gentle heat for a week or two keeps the sauce better.
Cited in: Overview; Method in the source; Variants and keeping
ckbkIngredients
Chetney Sauce from Modern Cookery for Private FamiliesIngredient quantities as listed: 4 oz stoned raisins, half a pound of acid fruit, 4 oz coarse brown sugar, 2 oz powdered ginger, 2 oz salt, 2 oz cayenne, 1 oz garlic, vinegar to dilute.