Name: Watermelon Rind Sweet Pickle
Ingredients: 3 ½ pounds white sugar; 7 pounds watermelon rinds, pared and cut into small squares; 3 pints apple cider vinegar; 1 lemon, sliced; 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon; 2 teaspoons ground allspice; 2 teaspoons ground ginger; 1 gallon water; 1 cup lime

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Watermelon Rind Sweet Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rinds

Soak the watermelon rinds overnight in 1 gallon of water with 1 cup of lime.
The next morning, rinse the rinds thoroughly in several changes of water.
Parboil the rinds in cold water until they are clear and tender.

Make the pickle

In a pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, and spices (tied in a muslin bag).
Add the parboiled rinds to the pot and cook until done.

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.

Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Lemon + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,289 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,620 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + limetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,621 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rinds: Form the bulk of the pickle, absorbing the syrup and becoming tender and translucent when cooked.
White sugar: Adds sweetness and, with the vinegar, builds the syrup that preserves the rinds.
Apple cider vinegar: Provides acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Lime: Soaking in lime firms the rind so it stays crisp through cooking.

The step that matters

Parboil the rinds until clear and tender. Soaking in lime leaves the rinds alkaline, so they must be rinsed well first. Parboiling until they turn clear and tender, rather than stopping early, ensures they soften fully and absorb the syrup evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, lime):

Orangefits about as well
Lemonthe original
Mangofits less well
Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, apple cider vinegar, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, lime. 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.

Apple Pudding256 recipes

Lemon Cake228 recipes

Ginger Cookies213 recipes

Lemon Ice147 recipes

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Watermelon Rind Sweet Pickle