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Watermelon Rind Pickle

Pickled watermelon rind preserved in a sweet syrup of sugar, vinegar, cloves, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Watermelon Rind Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Peel the watermelon rind and cut it into pieces.

  2. Soak the rind in weak saltwater for 24 hours.

  3. Boil the rind in water until tender, then drain.

Make and pour the syrup

  1. Make a syrup by boiling 2 pounds sugar, 1 quart vinegar, ½ ounce cloves, and 1 ounce cinnamon.

  2. Pour the boiling syrup over the rind.

  3. Drain the syrup, bring it to a boil again, and pour it over the rind.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + teatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together216 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + teatop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rind
Forms the pickle's main body and absorbs the syrup's flavour as it becomes tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the rind in the syrup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, tangy character.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet spice aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the rind until tender, then drain. The rind must be fully softened before syrup is added, because the syrup penetrates and sets the texture; undercooked rind stays tough and fibrous. Draining removes excess water so the syrup is not diluted.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, tea. 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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