I’m 37 years old and I’ve never had chutney. I’m not even certain what it is, exactly. From descriptions, it sounds very similar to salsa, though with a mango base instead of a tomato base?
Education desired! And if there are jarred brands I might be able to find, that info would be great, too.
Crosse & Blackwell - Major Grey’s chutney. Try it with Cool Ranch Doritos.
After that introduction, you can branch out to others. But that’s where to start. You can put it on damn-near anything - meat, veggies, fruit, it doesn’t matter.
I have a confession. I despise raisins. Is the chutney you linked to something with whole raisins?
There are very few foods I hate and raisins are right up there with mint. Bleargh.
Chutney can be made with mangos, but it doesn’t have to be - any fruit with enough body to withstand the cooking process without turning into mush can serve as a base. Green tomato and papaya are fairly common primary chutney ingredients. Chutneys are usually eaten with curries, although I think that may be a result of British colonial influence in India, rather than a locally generated culinary habit. Since I’m not sure and I’m too lazy to look it up, I will shut now.
There aren’t that many of them…just pick them out if you must.
Chutney is a broad category of pickled fruit and vegetable products, ranging from mango chutney, which is almost like a jam, to the dark, spiced relishes that may or may not contain raisins and may be chunky or finely chopped.
Relish is probably closer than salsa (the latter often being a fresh, unpickled concoction - in my understanding and experience of it, at least)
I could mail them to you if you like. 
He was replying to my question about the raisins, because raisins are evil.
I for one welcome our new wrinkled overlords.
I grew up in a culture where people made their own. Mangetout’s description fits my experience.
Good chutneys make slight deviations from the acid/sweet balance according to personal preference, and always have some texture, tending towards chunky. Vinegar was the acid of choice, unlike salsas, even though citrus was at hand. Used as a table condiment, on whatever you were having.
The Crosse & Blackwell version is a good starter if you’re in the U.S., but note the original wouldn’t have used HFCS.
As others have said, there are a tremendous amount of chutneys out there - some so different that it seems odd that they should all fall under the same category. Some can be preserved - like mango chutney, some should be made fresh every day - like tomato or coconut chutney (my GOD I love coconut chutney!).
Check out Manjula’s tomato chutney recipe - easy to make and pretty tasty. If mango chutney is more to your taste you should not settle for less than the wonder that is Geeta’s. I have never had better mango chutney than Geeta’s - even in India. Delicious.
Coconut chutney? Oh my.
Jsgoddess, although it is not technically a chutney… I believe a common American binary of chutney would be Mincemeat, as in Christmas Mincemeat Pies. If you’ve tried a mincemeat pie then you have a baseline for the taste of some types of chutneys. I imagine you would hate mincemeat however, because it is chock full of raisins…
Oh God, I’m sooo sorry for this.
Tee Hee
Thanks. I was reading through the replies, looking for a description of what a chutney might actually TASTE like, and Mangetout’s reply had me thinking “Hmm, that sounds like a mincemeat.”