Name: Spiced Nutmeg Melon
Ingredients: five pounds of fruit take a quart of vinegar; half pounds of sugar; one ounce of stick cinnamon; a quart of vinegar; eight successive days; cinnamon; allspice

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Nutmeg Melon

Ingredients

Directions

Select melons not quite ripe ; open, scrape out the pulp, peel and slice ; put the fruit in a stone jar, and, for five pounds of fruit take a quart of vinegar and two and a half pounds of sugar ; scald vinegar and sugar together, and pour over the fruit ; scald the syrup and pour over the fruit for eight successive days. On the ninth, add one ounce of stick cinnamon, one of whole clov^es and one of allspice. Scald fruit, vinegar and spices together, and seal up in jars. This pickle should stand two or three months before using. Blue plums are very nice prepared in this v/ay.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

63Calories

0 gProtein

0 gFat

16 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Fruit	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Goff, May Perrin, [from old catalog] ed. 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. See the original page.

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.

Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,548 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,187 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

Swap the allspice

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

Allspicethe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Clovefits about as well
Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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Spiced Nutmeg Melon