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Dessert

Spiced Nutmeg Melon

A preserved melon flavored with vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Spiced Nutmeg Melon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melons

  1. Open the melons, scrape out the pulp, peel, and slice them.

  2. Place the fruit in a stone jar.

Pickle over nine days

  1. In a saucepan, scald the vinegar and sugar together.

  2. Pour the hot mixture over the fruit.

  3. Repeat the scalding and pouring process for eight consecutive days.

  4. On the ninth day, add the cinnamon, cloves, and allspice to the fruit.

  5. Scald the fruit, vinegar, and spices together.

Seal and age

  1. Seal the mixture in jars and let it stand for two to three months before using.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Melon + clovetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together232 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Melons
Provide the fruit that is softened and flavoured by the hot vinegar syrup.
Vinegar
Acts as the preserving liquid and gives the sharp, tangy flavour that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit in the syrup.
Stick cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and spiced flavour to the fruit.
Whole cloves
Contributes strong, warm aromatic flavour to the fruit.
Allspice
Contributes warm, peppery aroma and spiced flavour to the fruit.

The step that matters

Repeating the scalding and pouring for eight days. Reheating the vinegar and sugar syrup each day and pouring it over the fruit gradually softens the melon and lets the sugar and vinegar penetrate. Skipping days or letting the syrup cool may leave the fruit firm and under-flavoured.

Swap the melon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Melonthe original

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

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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