Name: Melon Mangoes
Ingredients: small melons; mustard seeds; garlic; pickling spices; boiling spiced vinegar; packthread

Why it works: Mustard and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,053 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

Melon Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the melons in half and remove the seeds and pulp.
Stuff the cavity with mustard seeds, garlic, and pickling spices.
Bind the melons with packthread.
Pour boiling spiced vinegar over the melons for four consecutive days.
After cooling, tie them up again.
Before serving, untie the melons and remove the spices.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,053 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,067 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Garlic + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,115 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Melon + mustardtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together133 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Melon + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together416 recipes

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