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Musk Melon Pickles

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Musk Melon Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Select ripe musk melons and slice them into 1.5-inch thick pieces.

  2. Soak the slices in alum water overnight.

  3. Drain the melons well.

  4. In a pot, combine sugar and vinegar; boil and skim the mixture.

  5. Pour the syrup over the melons.

  6. After 9 mornings, pour off the syrup, heat it, and pour it back over the melons each time.

  7. On the last day, add cinnamon and cloves to taste.

  8. Boil the syrup down until it just covers the pickles.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + musk melontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Clove + musk melontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the musk melon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Musk melonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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