Preserving Gluts with Traditional Pickles and Chutneys

When the Glut Arrives

There comes a point in late summer when the kitchen table disappears entirely. Marrows the size of small dogs lurk in the porch, green tomatoes sulk on the windowsill, and strings of onions hang in the shed like some sort of allium chandelier. It is easy to feel defeated by it. But a good chutney or pickle is not a grudging compromise — it is the reward. Those jars on the pantry shelf in February, sharp with vinegar and warm with spice, are worth every sticky saucepan.

What follows are the methods I return to every year: reliable, unfussy, and built for the sort of quantities a real garden produces.

Get the Kit Right First

Preserving is more about equipment and hygiene than about culinary flair. Before the vegetables pile up, gather:

• Glass jars with vinegar-proof lids — modern metal lids with a plastic lining, or old-fashioned screw bands. Never use bare tin lids, which corrode and taint the contents.
• A large non-reactive pan — stainless steel or enamelled. Aluminium reacts with vinegar and gives everything a metallic edge.
• Vinegar of at least 5% acetic acid. Check the label, not the price. Malt vinegar is traditional for pickled onions; cider or white wine vinegar suits chutneys where you want the fruit to sing.
• A long wooden spoon, a jam funnel and plenty of clean tea towels.

To sterilise, wash jars in hot soapy water, rinse well, then stand them upside down on a baking tray in an oven at 140°C (fan 120°C, gas mark 1) for fifteen minutes. Fill them while still warm — cold jars crack. Boil the lids for ten minutes and lift them out with tongs.

Courgettes and Marrows: Spiced Chutney

For every 1.5kg of courgettes or peeled marrow, cut into 1cm dice, toss with two tablespoons of salt and leave in a colander for two hours. This draws out the water that would otherwise make a thin, weepy chutney. Rinse and drain thoroughly.

Then add 500g chopped onions, 250g sultanas, 400g light muscovado sugar, 600ml cider vinegar, a tablespoon each of mustard seeds and ground ginger, a teaspoon of turmeric, and a pinch of chilli flakes if you like. Simmer gently, uncovered, for one and a half to two hours, stirring often towards the end. It is ready when a wooden spoon drawn through the pan leaves a clear channel that fills slowly. Pot into warm jars, seal, and label.

Green Tomatoes: The End-of-Season Rescue

A hard frost will ruin them, so pick everything green before the first cold night. Slice 1.5kg green tomatoes and put them in the pan with 500g onions, 250g peeled cooking apples, 350g sultanas, 500g demerara sugar and 600ml malt or cider vinegar. Tie a tablespoon of pickling spice in a square of muslin and drop it in.

Bring slowly to the boil, then simmer for around two hours until darkened, thick and glossy. Fish out the spice bag, pot and seal. This is the chutney that improves most with keeping — three months in a cool cupboard turns it from sharp to mellow and deeply savoury.

Pickled Onions, Done Properly

The secret is brining, which keeps the onions crisp rather than soft. Choose small pickling onions, top and tail them, and pour over a brine of 75g salt dissolved in 1.5 litres of cold water. Leave for twelve to twenty-four hours — no longer, or they turn flabby.

Drain, rinse and pat completely dry, then pack into warm jars. Warm 600ml malt vinegar with a tablespoon of pickling spice, a teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of sugar until the sugar dissolves; do not boil. Pour over the onions while hot, covering them completely, and seal. They need six to eight weeks before they are worth eating.

Sealing, Maturing and Keeping

Fill jars to within a centimetre of the rim, wipe the threads clean, and screw the lids down firmly. As the jars cool, the lids should dip slightly — a good sign of a proper seal.

• Store in a cool, dark cupboard. Light fades colour and flavour.
• Leave chutney at least three to four weeks before opening; pickled onions need six to eight.
• Once opened, keep in the fridge and use within a month or two.
• If you spot mould, or the seal has failed, discard the whole jar. Never simply scrape the top off.

A labelled jar of your own chutney, made from a glut you could not possibly have eaten, is one of the quiet satisfactions of country living. Come winter, with a wedge of cheese and a slice of bread, you will be very glad you bothered.