Chetney Sauce (Bengal Receipt)

Ingredients

• 4 oz stoned raisins
• 1/2 lb crabs, sour apples, unripe bullaces, or other hard acid fruit
• 4 oz coarse brown sugar
• 2 oz powdered ginger
• 2 oz salt
• 2 oz cayenne pepper
• 1 oz garlic
• vinegar

Instructions

1. Stone the raisins and chop them small.
2. Chop the acid fruit (crabs, sour apples, unripe bullaces, or similar) small.
3. Grind the brown sugar, powdered ginger, salt, and cayenne pepper separately in a mortar until as fine as possible.
4. Pound the fruits well in the mortar.
5. Mix in the spices with the fruits one by one.
6. Beat the mixture together until perfectly blended.
7. Add vinegar gradually until the sauce reaches the consistency of thick cream.
8. Put the sauce into bottles with the garlic cloves divided into cloves.
9. Cork the bottles tightly.
10. For best keeping, expose the sealed bottles to gentle heat for a week or two, either by the fireside, in a sunny southern window, or in a very slow oven overnight (keeping them well secured from air).