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Dessert

Watermelon Rind Preserves

Preserves made from watermelon rinds, sugar, lemon, ginger, and other fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Watermelon Rind Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rinds

  1. Pare off the outside green rind, cut into pieces two inches long, weigh, and throw into cold water.

  2. Skim out and add a heaping teaspoon each of salt and pulverized alum to two gallons of rinds, let stand until salt and alum dissolve.

  3. Fill the kettle with cold water, place on top of stove where it will slowly come to a boil, covering with a large plate so as to keep rinds under.

  4. Boil until they can be easily pierced with a fork.

  5. Make and strain a strong ginger tea, take out rinds, put in tea, and let remain all night.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. Drain, add fresh strained ginger tea, add rind of four lemons cut thin, boil a few moments, skim out and make a syrup of the sugar (one pound to each pound of fruit) and a sufficient quantity of water.

  2. Add the rinds with the four lemons sliced, and a few pieces of white race ginger, and boil gently one hour.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

338Calories
7 gProtein
17 gFat
42 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Fruitnot in our table0

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

By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio). 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.

  1. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

  2. Apple + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,424 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rinds
Provide the bulk of the preserve, becoming tender and translucent as they cook in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, in syrup, helps preserve the rinds and give them their glossy texture.
Lemons
Add acidity and a bright citrus aroma that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Boiling the rinds until tender. Rinds must be pierced easily with a fork before syrup is added. Undercooked rind stays tough and fibrous, while overcooking makes it fall apart.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, egg, butter, ginger):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, egg, butter, ginger. 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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