‘Simple, well-crafted and excellent’: supermarket chutneys, tasted and rated | The food filter
Our resident taster dipped, spread and dolloped his way through 10 chutneys in time for Christmas, so you don’t get in a pickle choosing one for yourself The fair price for 14 everyday items, from cleaning spray to olive oilThe Guardian’s journalism is independent.We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.Learn more.Chutney is a heritage recipe that’s been largely unchanged for a century, and some of the best versions are the simplest and most traditional.That said, even when it’s made on an industrial scale, chutney usually features just fruit, sugar, vinegar and perhaps some pectin.
Colourings and preservatives are unnecessary and, in most cases, left out, with sugar acting as the main preservative.The Guardian’s journalism is independent.We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.Learn more.Unlike my recent English mustard tasting, it was pure joy trying these straight from the jar, and just about all today’s products scored highly.
Even though some weren’t quite cooked through, it was genuinely difficult to pick a winner,That said, as with many heritage products from old-guard producers and supermarket own-brands, provenance is woefully absent – there’s almost zero information provided about where ingredients come from or how they’re grown,The same black hole exists for sustainability credentials, though Tracklements stands way above the rest with B Corp status and clear sustainability commitments,★★★★☆A rich, orange-brown, apple-forward chutney that’s balanced with warm spices such as cinnamon and ginger, and sweetened with sultanas and treacle,Smooth with a rough fruit puree texture.
Delicious with roast pork, ham and strong cheese.Well balanced, versatile and very good value.★★★☆☆A sweet and tangy South African chutney made from peaches and apricots, with subtle spicing and a mild chilli kick.Saucy with soft chunks of fruit throughout, and great with cold meats and cheese or curry (bobotie, anyone?) Contains artificial colouring E150d, which the Yuka app flags as an additive of potential concern.Excellent value and roughly half the price of most competitors.
★★★★★Smells homemade and has a sweet, tart, fruity flavour from bramley apples, muscovado sugar, sultanas and onions, all gently spiced with chilli, ginger and allspice, and a rich, boozy depth from the cider brandy,Very thick with fruit and whole sultanas,Try with roast pork, ham, cheddar or paté,Simple, well crafted and excellent,★★★★☆Sweet, rich and very tangy, made with caramelised red onions, muscovado sugar and bramley apples, and with a distinct flavour from Black Sheep ale.
Thick with soft strips of onion and glossy,Flavourful, well balanced and excellent with a ploughman’s, pork pie or cheese,★★★★☆Wonderfully complex, made with layers of onion, apple, muscovado sugar and treacle, all lifted by white-wine and balsamic vinegars,Simply spiced with garlic and ginger,Extra thick and saucy, it’s good with burgers, hotdogs, goat’s cheese or baked camembert.
Great value.Sign up to The FilterGet the best shopping advice from the Filter team straight to your inbox.The Guardian’s journalism is independent.We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link.after newsletter promotion★★★★☆Well balanced, sweet, tart and warmly spiced, with stem ginger, orange zest, brown sugar and cider vinegar.
Thick, stewed-fruit texture.Delicious with cheese, roast goose, duck and turkey.Minimally processed, lots of fruit, low salt and excellent value for the quality.★★★★☆Sweet, sticky and with a tangy kick from white wine vinegar, all balanced by the deep flavour of slow-cooked red onions.Saucy and sweet, and excellent with cheese toasties, pork pies and strong blue cheese.
Minimally processed.★★★★☆Fizzes on the tongue, and has a warm, spicy aftertaste from chilli and ginger, plus a sour note from wine vinegar.Jelly-textured with seeds throughout.Perfect with roast lamb, game, cold cuts and mature cheddar.Simple recipe, good value.
★★★★☆A sweet chutney made from apples, blackcurrants, cherries, plums, cranberries and orange,Well-balanced and complex,Very thick with whole fruit chunks, making it perfect for cheeseboards, especially brie or stilton, and also goes well with paté and cold cuts,High fruit content and good value for the quality,★★★☆☆A chunky chutney with big pieces of fruit and sweet treacle, all balanced by warming spices including cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, caraway, fennel and cloves.
The fruit’s a bit al dente, though (I prefer chutney to be more cooked through).That said, it’s lovely with roast pork, ham or strong cheese.Simple, well-spiced and decent value.For more, read the best (and worst) vegan cheese, tested
FCA’s first deputy CEO calls for stronger grip on vital tech firms
The City watchdog has said the UK needs to “strengthen” its grip on foreign tech firms providing critical services to banks, amid growing concerns over outages and cyber-attacks.Sarah Pritchard, who was appointed the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) first deputy chief executive this summer, said there had been “very frequent reminders” of how important it was for the banking sector to have “good, strong operational resilience and cyber controls”.“It remains an area that everybody should pay attention to because of the consequences if it goes wrong,” Pritchard said.Last month, Lloyds Banking Group and the London Stock Exchange were among more than 2,000 companies whose online services were disrupted by a glitch at Amazon’s cloud computing services operations in North Virginia.The episode sparked renewed warnings over the perils of relying on a small number of foreign companies for operating services across the internet, including crucial government and financial services
Joe Rigby obituary
My father, Joe Rigby, who has died aged 87, was a working-class Catholic boy from Birmingham. He left school at 15, but rose to be a television executive at Granada Television in Manchester.For 20 years from 1973, he was Granada’s head of programme planning, where he hired, inspired and nurtured the team of scriptwriters who wrote the on-air promotions for programmes. Many of them, including Andy Harries, David Liddiment and Dearbhla Walsh, went on to great success as television producers and directors.Joe was born in Erdington, north of the city centre, to Theresa (nee Byrne) and Charles Rigby, who worked in the family engineering company and as a barman
UK watchdogs need to step in on rip-off bills, which are bad for consumers and the economy | Heather Stewart
Ever felt swizzed by the small print in your mobile contract, bamboozled by a plethora of insurance products or locked into a subscription you signed up for by mistake?Then you are far from alone: a paper on the UK’s productivity predicament suggests the way the markets for some key services work is not only a monumental pain for consumers but bad for the economy, too.Rachel Reeves has promised to tackle the cost of living in her 26 November budget – alongside bringing in tax rises.Briefing in advance has suggested she and her colleagues are focused on cost-cutting levers they can easily pull from Whitehall: removing VAT on energy bills, for example.However, in their paper “getting Britain out of the hole”, the economists Andrew Sissons and John Springford suggest a much more muscular approach to making markets for key services work better.They argue that lack of proper competition for services is an important explanation for the UK’s frustratingly “sticky” inflation
UK budget watchdog in danger of strangling economic growth, says TUC boss
Britain’s budget watchdog is in danger of strangling growth and should be modernised to ditch its “hardwired” support for austerity economics, the Trades Union Congress has warned.Less than two weeks before Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget, the trade union umbrella group said the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was at risk of being a “straitjacket” on growth in living standards.It called for an urgent review into the OBR’s role at the heart of the chancellor’s budget-setting process from the earliest opportunity after her 26 November tax and spending statement.Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, told the Guardian: “I don’t think the chancellor, whatever happens at the budget, wants to go down the road of austerity 2.0
Life as a food delivery worker: ‘Sometimes men open the door naked’
To earn a living as a delivery rider, some work 10-12 hour days, contending with low pay, exhaustion, accidents, injuries and harassment. Is this a new form of modern slavery?“I earn more cleaning toilets than I do from being a Deliveroo rider,” says Marina, a Brazilian woman who juggles two jobs to support her 12- and 18-year-old daughters.It’s a “bullshit, horrible job”, says Adam, from Sudan, who combines riding for Deliveroo with studying for a law degree. “On a good day I can earn £50 or £60, although it’s really hard doing deliveries using a pedal bike.”“As humans we are invisible to the people we deliver to,” says Mohammed, a Syrian refugee who also works as a Deliveroo rider
Half of all UK jobs shed since Labour came to power are among under-25s
Keir Starmer has been warned that Britain’s youth are in danger of becoming a “lost generation” on his watch as it emerged almost half of all jobs shed since Labour came to power are among the under-25s.With the government under fire before the autumn budget, Guardian analysis shows the dramatic leap in UK unemployment to the highest levels since the Covid pandemic is being fuelled by a youth jobs crisis.As many as 46% of the 170,000 jobs lost from company payrolls since June last year are from those under the age of 25 – the equivalent of more than 150 jobs lost per day.David Blunkett, the former Labour education secretary, said that while the government was taking action there was a danger an entire generation of young people would be let down.“I think we’ve got to get our act together
Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for apple, brown butter and oat loaf | The sweet spot
Polpa position: budget tinned tomatoes score well in Choice taste test
Don’t pour that olive brine down the drain – it’s a flavour bomb | Waste not
Australian supermarket wheat crackers taste test: ‘All the reviewers knew which one was the real deal’
Jimi Famurewa’s recipe for Marmite and leek homity pie
$1.50 mangoes: Australia’s best-value fruit and veg for November