Quick question for chutney-makers - lid on or off?

[dearprudence]

I'm hopefully making caramelised carrot chutney. I got the recipe from a lovely MNer on the poncetastic Christmas thread. I'm not sure how long to cook it for or whether to leave the lid on or off. The mixture is quite liquid.

I don't have time to search through the thread to find out whose recipe it was as I've also got Nigella's chilli jam on the go and I'm getting a bit panicky.

Thanks!

Lid off so the water evaporates

When you think it's gloopy enough, put some cold water in a saucer - as cold as possible; iced from the fridge is best. Then, get a tiny bit of chutney on the end of a teaspoon and let a drop fall into the cold water. If the chutney forms a little blob, it's ready. If it spreads out, boil it more.

PS can I have the recipe please! The (lovely) lady on the veg stall at my local market seems to have a crush on DP - at least, whenever he goes down there he comes back with free carrots. I'm running out of tolerance for carrot soup and carrot cake!

Thank you

Recipe to follow when panic over.

Cheers, and don't panic - you have to overboil for about half an hour to begin the fucking-up process

Right, chilli jam is sitting very prettily in the jars.

Carrot chutney also done. It's much darker than I thought it would be, and to be honest I think I could have upped the carrot and significantly reduced the raisin content, but this is the recipe I followed. (Actually, I think I got this from a food forum somewhere, not MN).

1Lb of carrots,
1 Large onion very finely chopped.
Small cooking apple very finely chopped
3/4 lb dark brown sugar,
1/2 pt red wine vinegar.
6 ozs of raisins, or sultanas.
1 large Tsp of allspice.
Pinch of cinnamon ,
Pinch of nutmeg
1 Tsp treacle.
1 Tsp salt

I grate the carrots , & steam them until they are soft.Allow the carrots to drain.
Put all the ingredients with the exception of the raisins in a pan , cook over a very low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
This is usually a slow chutney to cook as I tend to use a very low heat , so low you can just see the bubles.
Add the raisins for the last 10 mins of cooking .

Thank you! I shall halve it, chop the carrots too lazy to grate and chuck it in the breadmaker on Jam function

Did the saucer test work for you? I'm too impatient for it, sometimes...

Right, it's in! I've ponced about with the spices because I can't be arsed to go to the shop, so it's got ginger, cinnamon, thyme and chilli flakes in Also half muscovado and half demerara sugar

Hope it's nice. And thanks again for the advice.

I took DS out for a quick hour at the zoo, then realised that I'd not eaten anything all day so have just had some toast (no crackers in the house), cheese and my chutney. It's actually very nice. Although I was hoping for it to be more more bright orange like on the M&S caramelised carrot chutney and wensleydale cheese sandwich.

I tried the saucer test but I don't think the juice part of the chutney was every going to go really thick, so I just turned it up for 5 mins. The chilli jam I made used jam sugar and it's set beautifully.

of your breadmaker. I had no idea they had a jam function

half an hour to begin fucking up?
god, i could overcook my chutneys for days before they don't look right!

lid off anyway, because they have to thicken, and if the lid's on, the steam will go back into the chutney and you'll be there a loooooong time.

nickel, that's half an hour past the set stage before they start to fuck up, so about four hours in total

My lovely MIL and SIL clubbed together to get me a posh breadmaker last Christmas, it's amazing! Although I tend to put everything through twice to make sure, then boil it up afterwards in the microwave on the hob to make sure

I expect if you chuck in preserving sugar and orange food colouring it'll turn out bright orange. Real ingredients don't look like that

Mine always turn out too runny - no matter how long i boil them for.

jams, i can manage. chutneys, nah.

Mine's just out of the breadmaker and cooling so I can handle it. It's kind of spiced vinegary liquid with lumps of carrot in...

Oh dear

It's now in jars in the fridge. The joy of getting the machine to do it is that I don't get pissed off if it's not perfect - because I didn't stand and stir it for five hours