Sweet Yellow Tomato Chutney from Ball® Fresh Preserving

This post, featuring Sweet Yellow Tomato Chutney is sponsored by Ball® Fresh Preserving.

It’s time for my next partner post with Ball Canning. I’m working with them this season to share recipes, new products, and canning tips. So far this year, I’ve tackled a pantry makeover, shared my cheater shrub recipe, made a batch of strawberry rhubarb jam, cooked up some bread and butter pickles, fired up the oven for roasted salsa verde, and boiled up a small batch of pepper jelly 

This month, I’ve made a large batch of Sweet Yellow Tomato Chutney. Most of the time, I prefer recipes that produce a smaller yield, but a few times a season, I like to opt for something that will give me a big bang for my energetic buck. That way, I have some dedicated products to pull from for holiday giving.

To my mind, chutney is the perfect product to choose when going big. It gets its consistency from evaporation, and so there aren’t any issues around getting sugar and pectin to set. You can toss everything into a large pot and then cook it down until you’ve reached your desired texture and reduction. Sometimes I even cook it down over the course of a couple days, to better make it work with my schedule. Chutney is forgiving that way.

The backbone of this batch 12 cups of chopped yellow tomatoes (I struggled to find true yellow tomatoes, so instead opted for orange ones. They have a similar flavor profile and acid levels, so I feel fine with the swap). Nine cups of peeled and chopped green apples are the co-star.

The rest of the ingredients include apple cider vinegar, golden raisins, minced onion, two kinds of sugar, three fresh chili peppers (I used Hungarian wax), garlic, mustard seeds, fresh ginger, cinnamon, and salt. These are classic players in traditional chutneys and give it its signature sweet/savory/spiced flavor that is so good with meat, fish, and cheese.

To prevent the apples from browning, you start by pouring your vinegar into a large stock pot (I used a 12 quart pot because this chutney starts with a lot of volume) and then drop your apple pieces in as you peel, core and chop.

The only issue with the technique is that it doesn’t allow you to precisely measure the number of cups of apples you use (and cups are the primary measurement), so you have to estimate a little.

Once your apples are chopped, you start working on the tomatoes. The recipe instructs you to peel and seed them before chopping. My tomatoes were too soft to peel easily, so I did my best with the peels and seeds, but didn’t try to be absolutely perfect.

Once the tomatoes and apples are prepped, the rest of the ingredients join them in the pot. Then, you put the pot on the stove over high heat, bring it to a rolling boil, reduce the heat to medium-high and cook the chutney until it has reduced by about half.

Click here for the full Sweet Yellow Tomato Chutney recipe and complete instructions

The recipe claims that it should take no more than about an hour to cook down, but I found that it took far longer than that. My batch took just over four hours of gentle boiling (with lots of regular stirring to prevent sticking and burning on the bottom) to reduce to the point that it was thick, no water separated out, and it could mound on a spoon nicely.

The other issue with this recipe is the yield. The starting ingredients total just over 34 cups. It states that it should make 6-7 half pints. The chutney would need to reduce to 1/4 of its original volume to get even close to 6-7 half pints. So going in I suspected it would make more than that. Boy, did it ever.

My batch reduced a little more than half (normal for chutney), which left me with a total yield of 16 half pints. The pictures in this post show eight of the 16 jars, because I ran out of matching jars and the finished pictures wouldn’t be nearly as pretty with all the motley jars I had to use to finish making all that chutney shelf stable.

I’m not at all sad about having so much chutney on the shelf (like I said earlier in the post, I like having a stash of things to give to friends and neighbors), but I am curious where the original recipe writer got 6-7 half pints for the yield. Unless they meant 6-7 pints? That would be closer to target.

Click here for the full Sweet Yellow Tomato Chutney recipe and complete instructions

Thankfully, the finished flavor of this chutney is bright, fruity, and just a little bit spicy (thanks to those hot peppers!). I’m working on filling a number of gift boxes to send to my family for the holidays this year (since we aren’t able to gather in person), and come November, jars of this chutney will be winging their way to my parents in Oregon and my sister in Texas. I know that they will be welcome accompaniments to cheese boards and turkey sandwiches.

To get the recipe for Sweet Yellow Tomato Chutney, click here. Make sure to visit Ball® Fresh Preserving for more seasonal recipes.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post that is part of an ongoing partnership with Ball Canning. They have provided jars, equipment and monetary compensation. All thoughts and opinions expressed remain my own.

Note: I am working with Ball® Canning to resolve the yield and logistical issues in the Sweet Yellow Tomato Chutney recipe.

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