Re: Crosse & Blackwell Cranberry Chutney
From: Janet
Date: 11/21/2021, 10:46 AM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
On 11/21/2021 9:12 AM, Janet wrote:
Hi! I came across your site and decided that maybe you could help come close to a
duplicate recipe (or even just the non specified spices listed on label) of Crosse
& Blackwell Cranberry Chutney. It was discontinued but absolutely fantastic. Since
the spices aren’t listed there is no way I have figured out how to come close in a
recipe.
Thank you
Janet
Hi Janet,
It's extremely disappointing when a favorite food or ingredient is discontinued.
Suddenly something like this begins appearing on webpages that sell the product:
"Unavailable"
"Unfortunately this product is not currently available at any of our preferred retailers."
You look at the label on the product and all it says is something like this:
"Fruity, heady and aromatic, Cranberry Chutney is made with plump, ripe cranberries,
lightly sweetened and mulled in citrus and spice. A popular favorite with a heady
aroma and deep, complex flavor."
What? What kind of citrus? Orange, lemon, grapefruit, lime, kumquat? What "spice? Cinnamon?
Allspice? Ginger?
Product labels aren't much help. They aren't going to tell you how to make the product at home.
So, what you do next is turn to the Internet. Maybe someone has created a "copycat recipe" for
the product. Sometimes they have, but things that have a lot of ingredients, like seasonings
and spice mixtures and sauces are problematic. Chutney is one of those. Even the experts at
making copycats, like Gloria Pitzer and Todd Wilbur, have not created a copycat recipe for
Crosse & Blackwell's Cranberry Chutney. I can find no mention of a copycat or a "tastes-like"
recipe or a "tastes-like" product for this chutney at all. Usually, if there is another
product out there that tastes very similar to a popular product that's been discontinued,
someone will recommend it on a message board. No such luck with this chutney. No one except
Crosse & Blackwell management knows what's it in, and they aren't telling. Very few C&B
employees probably know. The spices were likely made up in a mixture by a select few
and sent to the chutney production facility pre-mixed. I know of no way to find out what
those spices are unless one of C&B's favored employees or former employees reads this and
decides to spill the beans.
It always amazes me when a company decides to discontinue a popular product like this.
Why? Have sales dropped so much, or has one of the ingredients become too expensive to
make it worthwhile?
I have a lot of cranberry chutney recipes here: 11-11-2002
As you can see, there is a lot of variation in ingredients. I have no idea whether any of
them tastes like C & B's chutney.
If I were you, I'd purchase a jar of every brand of cranberry chutney that I could find
and taste them all. I doubt you'll find one that tastes exactly like C & B's, but you
might find one that you like. That path might be a bit expensive, but not as expensive
and time-consuming as trying to make chutneys from all those recipes at
11-11-2002 and
then finding that none of them is like C & B's.
I will post this, just in case a sympathetic C & B employee reads it and decides to help.
Someone might recommend a "tastes-like" product or recipe.
Phaed
Thank you so much. You described this search effort perfectly! I searched and searched,
found those copycat sites and decided to see if you would have any luck. I’m going to
look through these recipes. There goes my secret zing to the day two cranberry sauce
leftovers of stirring in a little C & B for the perfect day after turkey sandwich…or
over cream cheese…or on pumpkin bread….or whipped with cream cheese and confectionery
sugary for the perfect filling to a sandwich cookie. :(. (Btw any other C&B fans out
there may agree product placement and advertising did not do this product justice lol).
Thank you for looking into this!
Janet
