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Dessert

Raisin Mangoes No. 2

Pickled young cantaloupes preserved with sugar, lemon juice, raisins, pineapple, ginger, and mustard seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Raisin Mangoes No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melon

  1. Peel and slice the young cantaloupes into thin slices with a sharp knife.

  2. Carve the cantaloupes into the desired design and soak them in brine until ready to preserve.

  3. Scald the cantaloupes in alum water, then weigh them.

Make the syrup and preserve

  1. For each pound of melon, add one pound of sugar and preserve until clear like citron.

  2. Remove the melons and add the juice of 12 lemons to the syrup (or use vinegar).

Stuff and seal

  1. Stuff the melons with chopped raisins, chopped pineapple, ginger, and mustard seed.

  2. Return the melons to the kettle of hot syrup for a few minutes, then place them in jars and seal.

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. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pineapple + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together559 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Ginger + mustardtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lemon + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,816 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Raisin + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Young cantaloupes
Form the main body of the preserve, becoming clear and tender as they cook in syrup.
Sugar
Preserves the melon and gives the syrup its sweetness and thick, clear texture.
Juice of 12 lemons
Adds acidity to the syrup, brightening flavour and helping preserve the melon.
Alum
Firms the melon flesh during scalding so it keeps its shape through long cooking.
Chopped raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the stuffing.

The step that matters

Scalding in alum water. Alum firms the melon's cell structure, so it stays intact rather than turning soft and mushy during long simmering in syrup. Too little alum or too long a soak can leave the flesh unevenly firm or harsh.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, raisin, ginger, mustard):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, raisin, ginger, mustard. 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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