A taste of Britain, Southern-style

Most people are wary of trying chutney, says Rebecca Williamson.

The name conjures up images of a spicy Indian jam, and how Williamson describes it — a British condiment made of fruit, sugar and vinegar — might sound a little strange to Americans. But most who give in to her pleas to taste her Holmsted Fines chutneys end up buying a jar. 

And when Williamson, a mother of three small children who loves good food but doesn’t have much time, describes how she uses it in the kitchen, the appeal grows, just as it did when she first tried it.

After graduating from Auburn University, Williamson moved to England in 2002 to do mission work with Youth With a Mission. She lived in an old manor outside London named Holmsted that served as a discipleship training school for the organization.

The house, she said, was dilapidated, but her experiences inside it were rich. It was during that time that she first discovered green tomato chutney, a staple condiment in the country. 

“In England you grab butter and chutney at the grocery store, it’s just what you did,” Williamson said. “The closest thing we have is relish, but chutney is more versatile because it has fruit in it. It takes the palate further than relish.”

At the end of each summer, the short growing season in England leaves a plethora of green tomatoes, and the English preserve them in chutney, a condiment they Westernized based on spicy chutneys they found complementing meats, cheese and pastries when the British Empire ruled India. 

After a year at Holmsted, Williamson’s path toward mission work was rerouted, and she entered Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in London. When she later came back to the U.S., eventually marrying and settling in Crestline, she couldn’t find authentic English chutney that satisfied her palate. Here, she said, chutneys in stores are red tomato-based and sweeter than what she had found in Europe. 

And so, she made her own. Last year, Holmsted Fines chutneys were born with labels bearing an image of the manor that first brought her to England. The chutneys have been for sale in local boutiques and grocery stores since May, and they can now be found in Whole Foods stores around the Southeast.

Williamson is an ingredient purist. The English put malt vinegar on almost any food, and likewise, it’s essential to her chutney recipe. Another must-have for her recipe was demerara sugar, a rich, raw sugar produced in England. Food packers would later try to get her to use another kind, but she insisted this was necessary no matter the cost.

All of Williamson’s chutneys have the same ratio of apples, golden raisins, sugar and vinegar, but additional ingredients distinguish each variety. Peaches and apple cider vinegar create a completely distinct flavor that she thought would be familiar to Southerners. The third variety works in a few of her favorite ingredients, balsamic vinegar and red onions. It has become her biggest seller.

Williamson’s friends have enjoyed cooking with her chutneys, and she encourages them to go beyond putting them over cream cheese for an appetizer. This past summer several friends would pour the green tomato chutney over their barbecued Boston butts. She recommends the red onion-balsamic chutney on burgers and tenderloin, and the green tomato stuffed in pork or chicken breasts.

Recently Williamson has been experimenting with other recipes that are featured on her website. The peach chutney stars in a bourbon-ginger beer cocktail and a barbecue sauce, and the balsamic red onion mixes with Greek yogurt and Dijon mustard for a French-onion-like dip for chips, crackers or veggies.

At home, Williamson’s husband likes the green tomato chutney on his sandwiches, and her three children like the peach variety best. One night she was serving her kids chicken fingers and ran out of ketchup. Mutiny ensued, she said, but the peach chutney came to the rescue. Williamson mixed it with Greek yogurt, and a new dipping sauce was born. 

Next to her passion for chutneys and pastries, Williamson’s heart is still set on the mission work. Today she stays involved by giving to causes she believes in, and her business does the same.

Each chutney jar is marked by her “committed to give” symbol, signifying that at least 10 percent of her proceeds go to Neverthirst, a Birmingham-based organization that gives resources to provide wells in third-world countries, and to International Justice Mission, an organization that fights human trafficking, both causes close to Williamson’s heart. 

Most recently, Williamson has been working to get her chutneys in more stores and developing a new fourth flavor she said will be spicier, but not of the Indian variety. 

Around Birmingham, Holmsted Fines chutneys are sold at Whole Foods, Western Supermarkets, Piggly Wiggly, Oak Street Garden Shop, Please Reply, Oli.O, A Little Something Boutique and Alabama Goods. For more information or to order the product, visit holmstedfines.com.