Cuisine Scene Smokey Stout Chutney product reviews

Ohhh, and this was another winner for me... though I have never liked to drink stout, I have always known that the heavier brews can have some amazing effects in food. This is no exception, providing a rich, deep smokey flavour to a condiment that ought to reclassified as it's own food group!

I wanted to really test this one, so I made one of my omelets... with shredded roast chicken, lots of Vitamin Bacon, some capsicum and fried onion, some beetroot and topped with the last of the Cuisine Scene Aioli that so impressed me. I actually made two omelets - one with the chutney and one with my usual tomato relish. The difference was unbelievable, and very obvious. The addition of this chutney gave the flavour so much more depth and complexity, it was one of those oil and water situations, really.

I also used some of this with some cream cheese and sour cream to make a basic dip, which was wonderful with chips, carrot sticks and also toast points, though it didn't go down too well when I tried it with crisp broccoli florets. Strange, but that's the way of things some times. I still have a small amount left in the jar, which I am saving to try in fresh scone pinwheels... but I need to brush up on my scone recipes a little first - it's been more years than I care to admit since I last attempted making scones.

Overall, another winner from the Cuisine Scene stable... and like the Kasundi, one I plan to buy again for further experimentation. I think this would down amazingly as part of a beef glaze I am working on, and I also suspect it would be a perfect compliment to some BBQ-seared garlic asparagus spears - another of my favourite Summer meal elements.

I was happy to try something new when I got given Cuisine Scene Smokey Stout Chutney to taste and review. I found opening it was a nice sweet smell and for some reason I could smell apples. Being a chutney I was thinking of what I normally use a sweet chutney for and thought I would take this to my nanas aswell for family night dinner. Lots of people lots of opinions.

This one was a hit more as its sweet, more people actually liked this chutney and enjoyed it with crackers and cheese, it went on plates with ham and was enjoyed from a spoon by some. This had me on the smell, the chunkiness was good and I don't normally like things that are chunky like that. I very much enjoyed it on my crackers.

Sadly at $9 and my budget I prob wouldn't be able to get this as half of it was gone within 4 hours, so having it out at a BBQ or a family dinner night it wouldn't be worth it for me. As we wouldn't eat it enough at home on our own it needs to be shared.

Of the three chutneys this was the one I was least sure about I haven't really ever been much of a fan of hickory smoke in things like barbeque sauce and I find the smoky taste a bit overpowering. I left this one to last to try although my hubby had already given it a go in his cheese sandwich for lunch and was raving about how tasty it was.

I opened the jar and gave it a curious sniff. To me it smelt a lot like the barbeque sauce they use at burger king but you could definitely pick out the smell of the vinegar. I cut up some cheese to put on crackers and very cautiously smeared the tiniest bit on top of one of the crackers. Well a little smear was enough to let me know that I did like it after all. The next cracker I put a lot more on and actually scopped out some of the chunks like apple to get a good taste of all the ingredients. The chutney is very sweet, and smoky and the apple gives it a nice taste and tang which may also be from the vinegar.

On things like crackers I wouldn't be able to have too many before I had had enough as it does have a very strong taste but when we used it in our home made burgers it made them a lot nicer than having just tomato sauce. My hubby said it would be great with steak at a barbeque so we are going to use the chutney on the weekend when we have friends over for a barbeque. I don't think the jar will last very long though as he keeps using loads of it in cheese sandwiches with fresh sour dough bread.

I was pleasantly surprised by this after thinking it wouldn't be something that I liked very much so would buy it again especially for my other half. I want to get him the big jar as he would like the word "Bloke" in the title making it sound like a very manly chutney.

I was given three Cuisene Scene products review. I loved the Tomato Kasundi and the Garlic and Chive Aioli. I was scared to try the Smoky Stout Chutney because it contained several ingredients I don't enjoy: stout, currants and sultanas. Eventually with the deadline looming for me to get my review written I had to try it. I made a sandwich containing cheese, ham and the chutney.

My first impression was there were lots of chunks of fruit: apple, sultanas and currants. This made it hard to spread on my sandwich evenly without using half the jar. (Perhaps this is a chutney better suited to a dollop on a cracker.) As a result there were whole bites that I couldn't taste the chutney.

When I finally took a bite I was pleasantly surprised. I couldn't taste the individual ingredients I had been dreading. Instead it was a lovely blend of flavours. If it had been a blind taste test (where I hadn't seen the label or the chutney) the only ingredient I would have been able to identify the vinegar. The apple added texture and a bit of crunch which I wasn't expecting since most chutneys have very soft apple. Needless to say instead of taking a couple of bites of my sandwich so I could honestly say I had tasted the chutney I ended up eating the whole sandwich.

I also used most of the jar in savoury muffins. I had been asked to provide a couple of plates for a wake and thought the muffins would be both a different way to try the chutney and something someone else wouldn't have baked. Thanks to Google I found an easy recipe using a competitors' chutney which was essentially cheese muffins with chutney mixed into the batter. The chutney gave the muffins a yellowy-orange colour and the pieces of fruit were clearly visible. The muffins were well received by everyone and I was pleased with the result.

Thank you Cuisene Scene and KIWIreviews for giving me the chance to try this chutney. I am currently working out who I will buy a jar for Christmas. I am sure both my father and father in law will love it.