Mary Berry’s 1 Unexpected Secret Ingredient For The Best Chilli

It’s amazing how much difference a single ingredient can make, isn’t it? 

Baking powder can transform overly tart tomato sauces into perfectly balanced delicacies. Sundried tomatoes, Mary Berry tells us, can make an otherwise regular soup sing. 

And as all too many of us have heard, a square of dark chocolate can add a delicious depth to chilli. 

Those are all valid points, of course. But Mary Berry swears by another, more unorthodox addition to make her chilli recipes sing. 

Which is? 

The former GBBO host likes to use mango chutney in her mixed bean and red pepper concoction.

She pairs it with tomato puree and veggie stock for a dish that’s “bursting with flavour,” placing the beans, stock, puree, and chutney into the pot at the same time. 

The Cordon Bleu-trained chef seems to love to pair beans with mango chutney, adding the sweet ingredient to her lamb and haricot bean recipe too.

She uses it for her “regular” (non-vegetarian) chilli recipe as well as the veggie kind. 

The ingredient ALSO features in her “Mexican lasagne” recipe and her chicken curry… it even makes its way into her Irish stew (I, an Irish person, will reserve judgment with enormous effort). 

Basically, it’s fair to say she likes the effect the ingredient has on stewed dishes. 

Why does it work? 

You might already know that sugar balances the acidity of sauces, especially those containing tinned tomatoes. 

Its effect doesn’t stop there ― we’re not completely sure why, but a dash of the sweet stuff seems to make other flavours (like umami) stand out more too. 

“A dash of sugar in savoury dishes has a complex, indirect impact on flavour, amping up tastes that might otherwise fade into the background,” Cook’s Illustrated writes.

Paul Wise, an associate member at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, told the Washington Post that sugar might be “tickling secondary mechanisms” in our tongue that mimic those in our gut, giving taste an extra dimension.

Then, there’s the specific sunny sweetness of mango to consider.

“You may think mango chutney is an unusual ingredient for a stew,” Mary Berry said in her Irish stew recipe. 

“But I find that it just adds to the flavour.” 

Same goes for her chilli, I guess…