Back in the day, every girl knew how to make home preserves. These days, making your own gherkins, jams, relishes, etc isn’t just a quirky throwback skill, it’s also a way to stretch out the taste of summer long into the autumn and winter… and save a bit of cash while you’re at it.

My mum recently showed me how to make chutney. It’s not the speediest of ventures, but the results are delicious. What’s more, this oola mission is sure to save me money on my grocery bill (ok, a small savings there) and also come in handy at Christmas when I wrap up a jar with some biscuits as a festive little gift.

The following items are crucial to any foray into the world of preserves: jars (jam jars or larger mason jars), lids and rings; a large pot to use as a hot water bath for your preserves; a rack to hold jars in the hot water bath; a kettle or second large pot to boil water for sterilising jars.

Once you’ve got these things in place, set aside a couple of hours, tie your hair back and get to work…

Sassy’s Mum’s Mango Chutney

Recipe yields about 6x 1-cup jars

4 cups chopped, peeled and pitted mangoes (about 6 mangoes)

1 cup coarsely chopped yellow onion

¾ cup golden sultanas

½ cup each peeled, seeded and chopped lime and orange

¼ cup peeled, seeded and chopped lemon

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup dark brown sugar (Demerara works well)

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup grated ginger

½ cup molasses

1 tbsp each mustard seed, red pepper/chilli flakes

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp each ground cloves, ground allspice

2 tbsp finely chopped coriander

1. Assemble your ingredients.

Chutney ingredients ready to go

2. Combine all ingredients except coriander in a large pot or heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Bring to the boil, stirring constantly.

Cooking the chutney

3. Boil gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add coriander and cook another 10 minutes.

Adding the coriander

Now that the chutney is made, it’s time to preserve that bad boy!

4. Preserving is all about the clean, clean, clean – or actually, sterile. So once your chutney (or relish, or jam, etc) is cooked, you need to sterilise your jars in a hot water bath (large pot of boiling hot water) or a very hot, clean dishwasher.

Sterilising the chutney jars

5. You also need to heat and sterilise the lids – simmer, don’t boil, in hot water for five or ten minutes.

Heating the jar lids

6. Pour the hot chutney into your hot, sterile jars. It’s easiest to use a funnel (a clean one, naturally!).

Pouring chutney into jars

7. Process your preserves in the hot water bath… and don’t worry, it’s not as tricky as it looks.

First, once the jars are filled to just below the band at the top, wipe the rims with a clean cloth and then take a hot, clean lid from the pot and put it on the jar. Screw a hot, clean band on top until it is finger-tight. Do this with all your jars until you are out of chutney (or jars).

Next, place filled jars in the hot water bath rack, being VERY careful to keep them upright. Once the rack is full, carefully submerge it into the boiling water and cook those jars for 15 minutes.

Finally, once 15 minutes has gone by, turn the hot water bath off and carefully use tongs to remove each jar, again being supremely vigilant not to tip the jars.

Chutney coming out of the hot water bath

8. Set your little treasures on a towel or mat on the counter, gently dab any water off the lid (gently as you don’t want to put pressure on the top of the jar – they need to be left alone to seal) and then leave them be. Over the next five to 20 minutes you should hear little pinging sounds as each jar cools and seals.

Check jars when they are totally cool – so, the next day. Any unsealed jars can be kept in the fridge; sealed jars can be placed in a cool, dark cupboard.

Et voila – home preserves the homemade way.

Homemade chutney -- the finished product.

Spent: £8 on ingredients, plus or minus a few pence, and the jars were £3. A veteran preserve-maker, my Mum already had the hot water bath, rack and tongs to hand.

Saved: my favourite mango chutney is £3.50 per jar. I now have six jars of chutney for the sum total of £11… and the same six jars of store-bought chutney would cost me £21, plus or minus any sales. So that’s a savings of £10, and a new life skill to boot!

ps — we tried the chutney two days after making it and it was properly delicious. Mission accomplished.