Autumn Olive Plum Chutney

A lot of you have never heard of autumn olive - also called Elaeagnus Umbellata - so check out my posts here  and here for the details.

We have a bunch of these - the thornless kind - and it's harvest time!   In no time flat we had a full gallon of berries.   These babies have a big seed in them so the first thing you do is cook them down and take the seeds out.   The first link above shows you how.

You'll get half as much sauce as berries.   We had 2 quarts of sauce when I was done, which was plenty for a batch of jam and some left over to experiment with.    I thought it would make a nice chutney paired with a few plums and this is what I did. 

Note: I was surprised to discover that this sauce tastes a lot like tomatoes, especially before you add the cloves. As in – everyone who tasted it said – “Did you put tomatoes in this? Are you sure?” If you want to see, then leave the cloves out until the very end of the cooking time. Autumn Olive and tomatoes are very high in lycopene, which contributes to their red color. It’s possible that has something to do with the taste thing.

This is a terrific barbeque sauce for your favorite grilled meat.    Terrific!   Mmmm.







Autumn Olive Plum Chutney

• 2 cups autumn olive sauce [from 4 cups berries]
• 2 cups chopped plums
• 1 tablespoon mustard seed
• 1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 1/2 cups sugar 
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped candied ginger
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 1/2 rounded teaspoon ground cloves

Combine ingredients and cook slowly over medium heat. This will get very, very thick, so feel free to add water [or juice] to bring it to the consistency that you want. With no added water, this makes 2 pints. When this stuff cools, it is molto thicko. [I just made that up.]  It takes at least a pint of liquid to bring it to a thick barbeque sauce consistency.

All of which means that you can put it up in smaller bottles, then when you need it, add half as much water for an easily spreadable sauce, and equal parts water for a pourable sauce.