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Melon Mangoes

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Melon Mangoes

Why it works: Horseradish and mustard match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Melon Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut a strip from each small green melon and remove the seeds.

  2. Secure the strip back onto each melon.

  3. Make a strong brine with coarse sea salt and water, and pour it over the melons.

  4. Let the melons sit in the brine for 24 hours.

  5. Prepare the stuffing with sliced horseradish, small cucumbers, beans, nasturtiums, mustard seed, whole cloves, and black pepper.

  6. Fill each melon with the stuffing and sew the strip back on.

  7. Place the melons in a stone jar.

  8. Heat the vinegar and pour it over the melons.

  9. Cover the jar and let it sit overnight.

  10. Pour off the vinegar, boil it again, and pour it back over the melons hot.

  11. Repeat this process three or four times until done.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Horseradish + mustardtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Horseradish + cucumbertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

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

  3. Cucumber + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

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

  4. Beans + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

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

  5. Melon + cucumbertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

Swap the melon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (horseradish, cucumber, beans, mustard, clove, pepper, vinegar):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Melonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against horseradish, cucumber, beans, mustard, clove, pepper, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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