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Dessert

How We Cook in Tennessee

A preserve made from watermelon rind, lime, sugar, and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lime and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,289 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Add two handfuls of lime to a bucket of cold water.

  2. Cut the watermelon rind into pieces. The rind should be weighed as soon as cut.

  3. Let the rind remain in the lime-water for twenty-four hours, turning it often from the bottom.

  4. Take the rind out of the lime-water and soak it in clear water to remove the lime, changing the water frequently.

  5. Scald the rind in strong alum-water with grape or butter bean leaves, keeping the vessel well covered so the rind may have a good green color.

  6. Let the rind boil in this about ten minutes.

  7. Drop the rind into cold water.

  8. Boil the rind in strong ginger tea, making enough to cover the rind well, and long enough to impart a flavor of ginger to the rind.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. Make a syrup using two pounds of white sugar to one pound of rind, and water sufficient to boil the rind until perfectly transparent.

  2. Do not put the fruit into the syrup until the syrup boils; then cook slowly.

  3. Sliced lemon is a great improvement; when not at hand, the oil of lemon may.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

72Calories
1 gProtein
0 gFat
20 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11

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

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. Lime + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lime + sugartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 bulk of the preserve and becomes translucent as it cooks in syrup.
White sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps the rind turn clear and firm.
Lime
Firms the rind's texture during the soak, helping it hold its shape through cooking.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright flavor that balances the sweetness of the syrup.

The step that matters

Do not put the fruit into the syrup until the syrup boils. Adding rind to cold syrup lets it soak up sugar unevenly and can leave it tough or cloudy, while a boiling syrup and slow cooking let sugar penetrate gradually for a clear, tender result.

Swap the lime

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limethe original
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Blueberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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