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Weeks ago I made a chutney of local ground cherries with onions and raisins. It came out very syrupy but I figured it will still be good in small doses with meats.

I was recently on vacation when hurricane sandy hit our east coast home -luckily nothing major occurred to our home-, and we were without power for several days. Anyway, I got back yesterday and noticed today that my chutney is not totally frozen.

I'm wondering

  • If chutney can spoil in the freezer if not totally frozen, and also what would cause the chutney to not completely freeze?
  • What are the signs of a spoiled half frozen chutney?

Any thoughts are welcome, thank you :)

J.A.I.L.
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Rose
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5 Answers5

8

It's doubtful that you'll get any spoilage in your freezer. Not much grows at -20°C, with or without liquid. Your chutney is likely not freezing because of its high sugar content: Freezing Point Depression. That's perfectly normal behavior.

Wayfaring Stranger
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I make large batches of chutney that I then store in a cryovac bag and keep them in my refrigerator. They last forever. Really, I think I have one that is at least a year old. Other than that, wayfaring stranger is correct about the freezing. It also applies to chocolate sauce and caramel sauce.

quincy
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We talk about freezing but, really, the benefits come from the low temperature, not from the change from liquid to solid. When you put things in the freezer, it doesn't matter whether they become solid or not: it just matters that they get cold.

David Richerby
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Chutneys can be very high in oil and/or be very salty - both factors can lower the point when a mixture freezes to a hard solid significantly.

rackandboneman
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If your chutney is refusing to freeze hard at -20C, then the sugar content alone is likely create a high enough osmotic pressure environment to deter/dehydrate most bacteria. The main remaining risk is fungi/mold if you keep it at room temperature of in the fridge. This is pretty much the same as honey.

user110084
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