Peach and Pear Chutney
Chutneys were for a long time a bit of a mystery to me. That is until I was given some by a friend and realized to my delight that just like ketchup, it goes well on top of pretty much everything. I feel like in some ways a chutney is a hybrid between ketchup and jam—it has a strong sweet fruitiness to it, but also a nice tangy bite. Add to that some wonderful spices and it becomes its own unique food.
Lately we’ve been putting chutney on our burgers, sandwiches, crackers, or just putting it on the table where people can decide to do with it whatever pleases them.
I wanted to use up a few of the pears from our tree as well as the leftover peaches from our canning session a few days prior. The recipe is loosely based on a few others but one unique feature is the use of the peach and pear peels to add color and pectin to the chutney.
The peels are normally just discarded so this gave throwing them in to boil with the vinegar and lemon juice gave them a good use. The skins of peaches are often saved and used for making peach jelly (or honey as it’s sometimes called), while pear skins contain good amounts of pectin .
I was especially pleased with just how much color the peach peels added, turning the finished product a deep pink as opposed to a more yellow color that would have likely been the result without them.
