In article >,
Melba's Jammin' > wrote:

> In article >, "Bob"
> > wrote:
>
> > Okay, lemme chime in here, in reply to the original question. (It was
> > Barb who started this, right? At least she didn't say she was making
> > Alfredo Chutney!) Here's a quote from a really nifty book entitled
> > _Salsas, Sambals, Chutneys & Chowchows_:
> >
> > "Even in their home country of India, chutneys are a varied lot.
> > They may be either raw or cooked, and range from chunky combinations
> > of fruit, vegetables, and spices to rather plain affairs of grated
> > vegetables with a few other flavors. As Julie Sahni points out in
> > her excellent cookbook _Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking_,
> > chutneys that contain large chunks of fruits or vegetables, like
> > Major Grey's and most of those included here, might be considered
> > pickles in India."
>
> >
> > So Barb, if you make a relish and CALL it a chutney, it's a chutney. :-)
> >
> > Bob
>
> Oh, brother! I was hoping to hear from Shankar and I get you instead.

Hey, I DID hear from Shankar. Sure do miss his wit and writing.

"I am afraid that I am about to give you the usual non-responsive
non-answer answer that people get from me on subjects like this.

I have no idea what makes salsa salsa. However, it is my belief that
many salsas would classify just fine as condiment chutneys. However,
they are not South Asian dishes, so I have no opinion on how they
should be classified. A pico de gallo, by the way, is completely
indistinguishable from a western-Indian kachumber, which many Indians
would regard as a fresh kinda-sorta condiment chutney.

As to chutneys:

Asking for my knowledge on the subject is not really useful, since all
I have on the subject is bigotry or revealed truth, depending on one's
point of view.

I think the search for classification of vaguely-defined dish like a
chutney is not very profitable. In general, I would say a dish is a
chutney if a chutney-making community which makes it says it is a
chutney. The definition needs the context. Without the context arguing
about these things is pointless.

Consider most things which occidentals call chutneys. Most of those are
crimes against nature, as viewed from the context of this member of a
chutney-making community.

A well-made cranberry sauce, however, is a fine chutney, except that
occidentals don't call it one. It would go fine with a few puris at the
end of an Indian meal. I have made cranberry sauces as formal chutneys
and my highly opinionated food-enthusiast relatives accept it as a
perfectly good dessert chutney."

I like his stance that a chutney is defined by a chutney-making
community.
--
-Barb, <http://www.jamlady.eboard.com> 8/3/05 New York-Vermont tab (a
couple pictures added to the 7/29 note on 8/5)