Name: Common Sweet Pickle of Melon
Ingredients: 1 well-flavored melon; Cold vinegar (enough to cover the melon); 1 pint vinegar; 1 pound and 2 ounces coarse brown sugar; 20 cloves; ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Common Sweet Pickle of Melon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melon

Pare off the hard rind of the melon.
Scoop out the seeds.
Cut the melon into 1-inch thick slices.
Submerge the slices in cold vinegar.
Let them sit for 14 days.
Simmer the melon slices in fresh vinegar until tender.
Drain the slices on a sieve.

Make the syrup and pack

Combine 1 pint of vinegar, sugar, cloves, and cinnamon in a pot.
Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.
Pour the warm mixture over the melon slices in jars.
Ensure the liquid rises 1 inch above the fruit.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Melon + clovetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together232 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Melon + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together241 recipes

Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).
Melon + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together416 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

What each ingredient does

Melon: Forms the main body of the pickle, becoming tender and absorbing the spiced vinegar.
Vinegar: Acidic base that preserves the melon and gives the pickle its sharp tang.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and depth, balancing the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cloves: Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.
Cinnamon: Adds warm, sweet aromatic flavour to the spiced syrup.

The step that matters

Simmering the melon until tender. Melon must be cooked just enough to soften while holding its shape; overcooking turns the slices mushy, and undercooking leaves them firm and unable to absorb the syrup.

Swap the melon

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

Vanillafits better
Quincefits better
Figfits better
Melonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon. 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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Common Sweet Pickle of Melon