I made a bunch of mango and peach chutney, quite acid, and bottled it up. After a while, the top started taking on this kind of oxidized color. It tastes fine, but the color is unappealing. Is there anything one can do to keep that from happening?

-- Laura Jensen (lauraj@seedlaw.com), October 12, 2001

Answers

Actually, I wonder if whatever answer someone comes up with can be used for pesto too. It goes from this beautiful green to an icky brown. Still tastes great, though.

-Karen

-- Karen (karen-reed@uiowa.edu), October 12, 2001.

Could it be too low in citric acid? They put liquid citric acid in most commercial canned fruits to keep it from discoloring. I have an aversion to it, but have had some success with sprinkling ground vitamin c over the fruit. :) tang

-- tang (tang@mtaonline.net), October 13, 2001.

I make all kinds of chutney from our fruit, and never had this happen. How much vinager (I use cider) are you using for a batch? Try putting a bit of Fruit Fresh in just before you put it in jars.

-- Duffy (hazelm@tenforward.com), October 13, 2001.