Why is my chutney not thickening

The chutney is done when you can scrape a wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan and the chutney does not flow back into the gap. If you are making a chutney then make sure that the lid is plastic coated as metal can react with the acid in the chutney. Kilner jars should have their rubber seals put in position before they are put in the oven. Allow for a long cooking time. It is essential that chutneys are allowed a long and slow cooking period in a pan that is not covered with a lid.

This will allow your chutney to become rich and smooth. Points to remember Place in a large pan with sugar and vinegar and cook down gently until the sugar is dissolved, stirring frequently. Simmer the mixture until the fruit or vegetables have softened and the consistency is thick and syrupy, with no runny liquid. Chutneys need to be left for a few days, possibly a little longer if malt vinegar has been used to allow the flavours to develop.

Vegetable and fruit pickles contain larger amounts of vinegar and less sugar and so need 2- 4 weeks before they are ready. Most chutneys take at least a couple of months for the full flavour to develop and mature. A big advantage to both fruit and vegetable chutneys is that they improve with age and, if properly stored, will remain in good condition for a number of years. 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. Preserving chutneys is accomplished by using the hot water bath technique of canning. Acidity — The acidity low pH of the chutney prevents growth of several spoilage and pathogenic bacteria, molds and yeasts. From: rby Sometimes one is sold as the other, although the arrowroot starch is more difficult to process, thus resulting in a higher cost. I prefer it to cornstarch. I've found it is not only lighter, easier to use and less likely to add flavor, but it seems to work better in homemade 'frozen dinners' -- we often make enough for four or six servings and freeze the leftover in individual servings for quick meals.

Cornstarch seems to work all the time. I think another time I've seen arrowroot breakdown is when you have to cook it for a long time or subject the sauce to heavy beating.

Fuzzy memory -- but I use arrowroot over cornstarch and am branching out to potato starch even. Cornstarch was always too starchy tasting to me. There's also kuzu BTW kudzu?

All kuzu is from Japan. Arrowroot slurries and cornstarch slurries are both used to thicken sauces and gravies. They both yield a clear, glossy sauce which gives a "mouth feel" and appearance similar to a sauce containing quantities of butter, without the calories, cholesterol, and saturated fat problems associated with butter.

They both require much less time than a flour-thickened sauce. The arrowroot slurry is merely stirred into the liquid for 30 seconds to a minute and it's ready.

The cornstarch slurry is stirred into the liquid; the mixture is returned to the heat and heated to a simmer, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens and clears it will be opaque at first. He claims that it just doesn't work; the finished product does not have a satisfactory mouth-feel.

I have used both, and where a non-milk based liquid is used, I prefer arrowroot to cornstarch. BTW, a cornstarch thickened sauce will become thin again there's a technical term for what happens --something concerning the release of water-- but I don't recall what it is called. As you probably know, cornstarch-thickened sauces such as those used in the typical Chinese restaurant to accompany egg foo yung will become a rather thick jelly when refrigerated.

However, when re-heated, the sauce will typically be much thinner than it was when freshly prepared, and may even require re-thickening with another CS slurry. Arrowroot thickened sauce, on the other hand, freeze well in such preparations as chicken pies, and do not re-hydrolize the word just popped out of my sub-conscious when the pies are reheated.

I have also used it for thickening chicken ala king, which I have then frozen and re-heated without any problems. I suspect that --in both cases-- the concentration of the arrowroot or cornstarch in the original slurry may have some effect.

BTW, I have also used raw rice or raw tapioca, first reduced to a powder-like consistency in an electric spice grinder as thickening agents mixed in a water slurry or mixed with the fruit or contents of both sweet and savory pies. EDU j. Doesn't dull the color or add a starchy taste according to them. I have read in cookbooks that cornstarch shows some breakdown in seriously tart pies and such and arrowroot does not.

I don't know any more about it than that and I don't know what the chemistry might be, if the claim is indeed true. I'm somewhat sceptical, since starches are not all that easy to hydrolyze. Just a note, arrowroot from what I have been told shouldn't be used with dairy products. I learned that from Graham Kerr He says that it won't work well and that corn starch should be used.

Chutneys contain no added pectin and can be chunky and full of pieces of dried fruit and raisins, or they can be blended until smooth. To thicken the relish, add the cornflour to a little water and mix to a smooth paste.

Add a little of the hot liquid from the relish mixture until the paste is the consistency of thin cream. Add the paste to the relish mixture and stir continuously for around 5 minutes until it thickens.

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