• 2.75 kg/6 lb cooking apples
• 900 g/2 lb onions
• 3 dl/½ pint water
• 2 level tablespoons cooking salt
• 40 g/1½ oz ground ginger
• 15 g/½ oz ground cinnamon
• ¼ level teaspoon cayenne pepper
• a generous litre/2 pints malt vinegar
• 900 g/2 lb soft brown sugar
• 450 g/1 lb golden syrup

Peel, core and chop the apples and peel and chop the onions. Place in a large stainless steel or aluminium saucepan with the water and simmer for 20 minutes. Because vinegar tends to toughen onion it is advisable to soften any quantity of onion in a chutney recipe by simmering in water before the remaining ingredients are added.

Add the salt, ginger, cinnamon and cayenne pepper and half the vinegar. Continue to simmer the ingredients until quite soft.

Add the sugar, syrup and remaining vinegar and simmer gently until the mixture is quite thick. When ready there should be no free vinegar in the pan. Bottle the chutney while hot in clean warm jars.