[allotmentann]

Does anyone know if I can part cook my chutney, turn the heat off then finish it tomorrow? It is taking far longer than I thought and I want to go to bed sometime tonight! I should have known, it always takes far longer than the recipes say?

[Madame Cholet]

put it in the slow cooker if you can stand the smell it will be done by the morning.

[allotmentann]

No slow cooker I am afraid! And I daren't turn the heat up at the stage it is at either (to try and speed it up!). Got a really early start tomorrow as well! Should have thought before I started. Perhaps I will have to set the alarm and get up in the middle of the night!

[Mrs Bee]

Take the chutney off the heat, cover it with a tea towel and come back to it in the morning or later tomorrow.

I do it all the time. I sometimes get to a stage where I think it has reduced enough but I may not be sure, so I leave it overnight to cool and take alook in the morning. Sometimes I find that it is stiff enough and just reheat to boiling before potting and sometimes I need to continue reducing.

Sometimes I just run out of steam. I find if I continue when I am really tired I make really bad mistakes and sometimes the chutney is ruined.

No worries. Go to bed and come back to it fresh in the morning. It will be fine.

[allotmentann]

Oh Mrs Ball, thank goodness you are there! I shall turn it off now and come back to it tomorrow. That is really good to know as I am always trying to fit chutney in somewhere, and I have had such a long day. Thank you so much

[Madame Cholet]

sleep well.

[Trillium]

I partly cook things that take too long as well then finish it the next day.

[allotmentann]

It is really good to know that you can do that, I was worried it might affect the set. Really grateful for the advice. It will be finished later. (And I did get a good sleep thanks to you all!)

[8doubles]

No slow cooker I am afraid! And I daren't turn the heat up at the stage it is at either (to try and speed it up!). Got a really early start tomorrow as well! Should have thought before I started. Perhaps I will have to set the alarm and get up in the middle of the night!

Put a slow cooker top of the list for that event in late December that we mustn`t mention yet !

Even the cheap ones are very useful.  

[Mrs Bee]

Oh Mrs Ball, thank goodness you are there! I shall turn it off now and come back to it tomorrow. That is really good to know as I am always trying to fit chutney in somewhere, and I have had such a long day. Thank you so much

pleasure to help.

I know that feeling all to well. 

Chutney does take a while to make and I have often tried to fit in 2 or 3 batches in the same day and get to to the stage of giving up the will to live, and the ankles have swollen. So I stop.

IfI am trying to do a marathon preserve session, I try to start with jam first, then piccallili and then chutney last.

If you do marmalade I find you get a better result by preparing it all and freezing it. Then when you are ready cook the peel until really soft... I use a pressure cooker..... then let it sit and cool over night.

Glad you got a good nights sleep. That is always more important than the chutney

[allotmentann]

You are a mine of useful information Mrs Ball I don't know where I go wrong with chutney, all the recipes say two to three hours, mine always take at least twice that!

[Madame Cholet]

You are a mine of useful information Mrs Ball I don't know where I go wrong with chutney, all the recipes say two to three hours, mine always take at least twice that!

she's a jem all those things your mother  would have taught you if she had been interested in cooking.

[allotmentann]

  Yes Rachel, you are right. My mum hated cooking so I have had to teach myself! 

[Mrs Bee]

You are too kind. I am glad I still have my uses

I learnt to cook in self defence. My mother is the worst cook ever. You are probably too young to remember a sit com called Butterflies. That was my mum's level of cookery, she even looks like Wendy Craig. My mum, a lovely woman but a terrible cook. She hated and still hates cooking but at 81 she keeps her enormous garden beautiful. She would rather be gardening than cooking

The tales I could tell

And as for chutney, it can be a right .........er. It can burn if you turn your back on it at the wrong time and be like  boiling lava. If you answer the door for more than a minute it will take that moment to burn. I always try to take it off the heat at moments like that but don't always succeed

If the veg has lots of water in it it can take longer than the books say, or if the size of your pan is smaller than a preserving pan.

Some chutney recipes look good in the recipe book and can be mediocre at best and 'orrid at worse, it is all trial and error and knowing how to pep up a chutney recipe that doesn't quite float the boat.

I have a cauldron of chillilli chutney half cooked at the moment which can wait until tomorrow morning now 'cos I am feeling old and tired and will knack it up if I continue.

 Gin and bitter lemon marmalade is sitting waiting to be finished and I will sit and watch the telly while I label the piccachilli that I made this morning. A new recipe of my own.

If your chutney is taking longer than the books say you could try having the heat up a little higher but you really shouldn't leave it 'cos it will stick and burn the bottom of your pan black.

What sort of pan are you using A. Ann. Is it a large preserving pan, 'cos if it is a small pan and you are cooking a large amount of chutney it will take longer because the liquid won't evaporate as quickly as it would in a wide mouthed preserving pan.

I hope your chutney turned out well.

[Trillium]

I remember that show, Butterflies, and she really was the worst cook.