Can I mess with a chutney recipe? Not sure about using ground cloves...

[Ernestina]

I'm going to make Nigella's Christmas chutney in a bit (credit crunch approach to Christmas pressies) but thought I might take the ground cloves out as find the flavour a bit overpowering myself. But will it spoil the recipe or unbalance the flavours? There's already ground ginger, cinnamon and cayenne pepper in there...

I think the cloves would add a depth to the flavour - maybe reduce the amount she uses/

Personally I don't think chutney suffers too much from messing about with the spices. If you don't like ground cloves, don't use them.

I've made a batch without the cloves - it's for presents for parents and in-laws and I know my mum hates cloves. I haven't actually tried it (I don't like chutney ) but DH had some and liked it.

He said the apple and cranberry one smelled like puke, but that's another story.

BTW the chilli jelly in that book is bloody lovely.

In general (not specifically relating to Nigella's chutney) if you don't use too many cloves you don't get that overpoweringness and they just blend into other flavours. This came as a big surprise to me as my mother and grandmother were both firmly of the opinion that you could neve cram enough cloves into something. Now when I cook with cloves much of the time you wouldn't know that the thing has cloves in.

So I'd be inclined to stick with the cloves, or cut them back (maybe use half as much) to be on the safe side, but not lose them altogether.