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Sweet Watermelon Pickle

A pickle made from watermelon rind, sweetened with sugar and flavored with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and turmeric match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,197 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Sweet Watermelon Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Trim the rinds, removing the hard outer green coating.

  2. Weigh the rind and place it in a kettle, covering it with soft water.

  3. Boil gently for 30 minutes, then drain on dishes.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. The next morning, combine vinegar, brown sugar, cinnamon, mace, egg white, and turmeric in a kettle.

  2. Boil for a few minutes, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Add the rind and boil for 20 minutes.

  4. For added flavor, include the peel of two fresh lemons, if desired.

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. Cinnamon + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Turmeric + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Watermelon rind
Forms the pickle's bulk and absorbs the spiced, sweetened vinegar syrup as it cooks.
Vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that preserves the pickle and balances the sweetness.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the syrup, helping the rind turn tender and glossy.
Egg white
Binds fine particles from the syrup so scum rises and can be skimmed off, clarifying it.

The step that matters

Skimming the syrup before adding the rind. Scum that rises during the first boil must be removed, since leaving it in makes the syrup cloudy and can affect the pickle's appearance and clarity.

“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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