Pear Chutney

Name: Pear Chutney
Yield: Makes about 3½ cups
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 pound hard, underripe pears, peeled, seeded, and chopped; 1 lightly packed cup light or dark brown sugar; 1 cup apple cider vinegar; ½ teaspoon cayenne; 1 teaspoon mustard seeds; ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon; ¼ cup crystallized ginger, chopped; ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg; ½ teaspoon freshly ground white pepper; ⅔ cup light or dark raisins or a mixture of the two; 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice; ⅔ cup chopped onion

Preparation info

Makes about
3½ cups

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Hoppin' John's Charleston, Beaufort & Savannah

By John Martin Taylor

Published 1997

About

This is a perfect complement to salty country ham. In the lowcountry, it is made with the hard local Kieffer pears, but you can use any underripe pear. When there’s leftover country ham, grind it with equal amounts of this chutney and put it out with crackers as an appetizer: ham paste always disappears when offered.

Ingredients

1 pound hard, underripe pears, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 lightly packed cup light or

Americas
United States
Condiment
Vegan
Gluten-free
South Carolina

Method

Cook the pears in water to cover until they are medium-soft. Drain, saving the water, then make a syrup of the water and the brown sugar by boiling in a nonreactive pot until thick, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Add the pears and the remaining ingredients to the pot and cook for another 30 minutes, or until the raisins are soft, the onions are clear, and the chutney is thick.

The chut