What is the difference between pickle chutney and relish

As greater imports of foreign and varied foods increasing into Northern Europe the Chutney fell out of favour. This combined with a greater ability to refrigerate fresh foods and an increasing amount of glasshouses meant Chutney and pickle were relegated to military and colonial use.

In the early 17th century, British colonization of the Indian subcontinent relied on preserved food stuffs such as lime pickles, Chutneys and marmalades. Marmalades proving unpopular due to their sweetness and a lack of available sugar. During this time fruit Chutneys became popular and were shipped to countries like England and France as luxury goods. And it specifically talks of using vinegar or brine salt in the process.

A look at most pickle recipes will find they use those vegetables and fruits that grow in the colder climes of Northern Europe and that most pickle recipes seem to originate from Northern Europe German, Dutch. Polish, Scandinavian, Russian and the old Soviet bloc. The reliance on vinegar and salt to preserve food before the mass production of glass jars is understandable as preserving in pottery with vinegar is less likely to kill you than using sugar.

Coupled with the fact that the process of creating beet sugar was only invented in France during the early 19 th century and prior to that sugar was from cane that originated in the Orient and the trade of which was initially via the spice road though Italy specifically Genoa. It is hardly surprising that we find Northern Europeans preserving in vinegar and salt rather than sugar.

So the word Relish is more likely to be applied to recipes using produce from the Latin nations of Europe France, Italy and Spain and Britain. Again, prior to beet sugar it is more likely that sugar would be found in Southern Europe than the north. Couple this with the fact that these nations have milder winters when it is possible to still grow food to eat it is hardly surprising that they have more recipes with sugar and more likely to be making a preserve with a shorter shelf life than Northern Europe.

So we have Europe where the majority of people cannot read or write passing on recipes by word of mouth where those in Northern Europe were most likely to be using the word pickle while those in Southern Europe using the word relish. While those in the north using longer lasting preserving methods than those in the south and both using different produce to preserve.

In it the authors not only talk of cooking traditions from other European countries and ancient times but the recipes themselves use spices from the Orient, so as far back as the ruling class of Britain is absorbing cookery terms from across Europe, the Middle East and the Orient.

Over time as Europeans spread out, the middle class grew, trade grew and more cultures were discovered that people shared their cultures and this included cooking. Therefore, it is easy to imagine the start of our current confusion because as people shared recipes it would be easy to take a recipe from one culture but give it the name that you have always used, so pickles become relishes and vice versa.

And this growth kept getting faster right through the 15 th to 18 th Centuries. Of course the biggest and fastest mixture of European culture in an English context came with the increased European settling of North America during the 18 th and 19 th Century.

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