Have you been canning this late summer/early fall? Chutney is a dish that comes up often in canning recipes – and it looks an awful lot like a fruity salsa.

What’s the difference between chutney and salsa?

Definitions:

• Chutney: a sauce or relish of East Indian origin, often compounded of both sweet and sour ingredients, as fruits and herbs, with spices and other seasoning.
• Salsa: Mexican cookery – a sauce, specially a hot sauce containing chiles; (also a ballroom dance).

Chutney:

• Hails from India.
• Usually contains fruit.
• Is typically sweet and sour.
• Ingredients often used: apples, mangos, brown sugar, raisins; tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic.

Salsa:

• Hails from the Aztecs.
• Sometimes contains fruit.
• Is typically spicy.
• Ingredients often used: cilantro, red onions, lime; tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic.

Both:

• Often contain tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, and/or garlic.
• Can also contain a wide variety of other foods.
• Can be chunky or smooth.
• Are often pungent, or strongly flavored.

Although both definitions indicate the two food items are sauces, I would tend to disagree for chutney – I find chutney to be more like a relish in conjunction with preserves. Salsa is admittedly sauce-like. Unless it’s really chunky.

The biggest difference between the two is that chutney almost always contains fruit, and salsa usually doesn’t, although I have definitely seen watermelon salsa on Pinterest.