Why it works: Ginger and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,152 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
Sweetmeat Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rind
Cut the watermelon rind into desired shapes.
Soak the rind in brine until it floats an egg, then cover with grape leaves and set aside.
Soak the rind in fresh water, changing it until the salt taste is gone.
Dissolve the alum in 1 gallon of water and lay the rind in it, covered with grape or cabbage leaves.
Simmer the rind until it turns a pretty green, then soak it in soft water to remove the alum.
Make the syrup
Pour boiling water over the ginger and let it soften.
Boil the ginger in ½ gallon of water for 1 hour.
Add the mace and sugar to the ginger water, creating a thin syrup.
Cook and rest the preserves
Gently boil the rind in the syrup for 30 minutes, adding water to keep it covered.
Set the kettle aside for 4 days, then boil again, adding more sugar and water as needed.
Repeat boiling 6 or 7 times until the syrup is thick and rich.
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.
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Ginger + macetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,152 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Grape + gingertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Grape + macetop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together446 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
- Watermelon rind
- Forms the main body of the preserves, becoming tender and translucent as it cooks in syrup.
- Alum
- Firms the rind's texture so it stays crisp through long boiling and firms the flesh.
- Brine
- Draws salt into the rind to firm it and prepare it for the later soaking.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the preserves and, as the syrup thickens, preserves the rind through repeated boiling.
- White ginger
- Adds a warm, spicy aroma and flavour to the syrup.
The step that matters
Repeated boiling of the rind in syrup. Each boil and rest lets syrup slowly penetrate the rind while water evaporates and the syrup thickens. Boiling too hard or too briefly can toughen the rind or leave the syrup thin, so the preserves may not become clear and rich.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, grape, ginger, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, grape, ginger, sugar. 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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