WELL PRESERVED

A FAMILY FROM NORTH QUEENSLAND IS PASSIONATE ABOUT KEEPING THIS 100-YEAR-OLD MANGO CHUTNEY RECIPE ALIVE.

A 100-year-old mango chutney recipe is lovingly kept alive by a north Queensland family.

AS A YOUNG GIRL, Lynne Hutton lived on a remote sheep station between Cloncurry and Julia Creek in north-western Queensland. Then, in 1958, when she was 10 years old, Lynne’s parents sent her to live with her grandmother, Agnes Garbutt, so she could attend St Anne’s school in Townsville. Built on the slopes of Castle Hill, Agnes’s house was a big Queenslander with wide verandahs to catch the cool sea breezes from Cleveland Bay. “Nan was very sweet and generous,” recalls Lynne, now 70. “She had beautiful silky hair, like spun silver, and she used to let me brush it before bed.” Agnes wasn’t an adventurous cook by today’s standards, but the traditional fare she prepared was much loved. “Nan’s kitchen was quite small with a marble table in the middle where she would roll out her wonderful pastry for steak and kidney pies. Her roast pork and crackling was the best in the world!” Like many women of her generation, Agnes was skilled at making preserves, which were stored in a big, green pantry cupboard in the hall. “It fascinated me,” says Lynne. “It held jars and jars of homemade goodies — gallons of cumquat marmalade and rosella jam — and fruits, such as custard apples, pawpaws and guavas, would be kept in the cupboard to ripen. It had a beautiful spicy smell.” The pantry cupboard was always well stocked with mango chutney, which Agnes made to a recipe she inherited from her mother-in-law Lucy Garbutt (pictured above with four of her daughters). “Nan made great big jars of chutney and sent them to her children all around Australia,” says Lynne, who remembers the chutney being served with cold meats and cheese at family gatherings, on sandwiches and as part of a cheese board. “It’s delicious with cheddar.” When Agnes died in 1976 at the age of 93, Lynne’s brother Geoff got hold of the recipe and began making mango chutney. Then, three years ago, Lynne came across cooking mangoes at her local fruit shop in Sydney and decided to give it a go. “They must be ‘common’ mangoes — small, green cooking mangoes — not the eating variety, as the flesh turns mushy when cooked. “Now I give the chutney away to my family and friends,” says Lynne, who believes it’s important to keep the tradition of Lucy Garbutt’s mango chutney alive. “It’s quite a talking point and it keeps the family together in a funny sort of way.”