If you like hot chutney then I’ve got a link you will be interested in. I have been tasting three chutneys from Perthshire Preserves and they are fiery little numbers that will appeal to the lover of spicy food.
Perthshire Preserves have been trading since 2010, but have been making chutneys for much longer. They are based in Callander in Scotland and their label depicts the summit of Ben Ledi which can be seen nearby. Coeliac friendly, they only use wine vinegars in their chutneys.
I had several volunteers to help with the tasting, which took place just after Christmas. These chutney were just the flavours to reinvigorate the taste buds after the Christmas indulgence. The tasting chutneys were hot banana, curried tomato & chill and butternut squash. Of these I expected to prefer the tomato. However I started with hot banana as that is not a flavour I have tried before. It smelt sweet and spicy, a dark yellow colour with currants and banana visible amongst the other ingredients. Some tasters said it was mild, but I disagree and think it has a fiery undertone. If not a fiery overtone. Piccalilli-like it has the extra sweetness of banana that was unexpected but worked well.
Sweet tomatoes could be detected from the bouquet of the curried tomato & chilli, whose red colour made a nice contrast to the other two chutneys. One taster thought the aftertaste of the tomato chutney harsher than the butternut squash, others thought it lovely and sweet. Both had an interesting texture and added crunch to each mouthful. Though the tomato & chill is billed as curried I thought the butternut squash hotter, but that could have been because I’d already overindulged in the hot banana.
‘A welcome addition to any meal’, quoth one of the tasters who declared she’d be pleased to come across any of the three chutneys in her local pub. The consensus was that the tomato & chill was the favourite, but personally I still have a yearning for more hot banana.
As well as chutneys Perthshire Preserves also makes a large number of jams, jellies and preserves. These include an orange and whisky marmalade and an award winning pink grapefruit & ginger marmalade. It sounds worth a trip to Scotland to taste that!
Prices (January 2013)
Hot Banana Chutney £3.50
Curried Tomato & Chilli Chutney £3.50
Butternut Squash Chutney £3.50
For more details visit Perthshire Preserves
Disclosure: I was reviewing tasting samples sent to The Flaneur. If you would like your products reviewed by The Flaneur please contact foodeditor@flaneur.me.uk.
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