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Melon Pickle

A pickled mixture of muskmelon, cabbage, onions, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Melon Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melon

  1. Cut the muskmelons in half.

  2. Scrape out the seeds and soft part.

  3. Dice the muskmelons into small pieces.

Salt and rest

  1. Combine the diced muskmelons, chopped cabbage, and chopped onions in a bowl.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

  3. Let sit overnight.

  4. In the morning, drain the mixture.

Cook and seal

  1. Transfer the mixture to a kettle.

  2. Add enough vinegar to cover.

  3. Add sugar to taste.

  4. Add cloves to taste.

  5. Add cinnamon to taste.

  6. Add pepper to taste.

  7. Cook for about 1 hour.

  8. Bottle and seal.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  4. Cabbage + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,001 recipes

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

  5. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Muskmelons
Provide the bulk of the pickle and its sweet, mild flesh once cooked.
Cabbage
Adds body and a crisp-tender texture to the pickle.
Onions
Add savory depth and aroma as they soften during cooking.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens flavor and helps preserve the pickle.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness with sweetness.

The step that matters

Salting overnight and draining. Salt draws water out of the melon, cabbage and onions by osmosis. Draining well before cooking keeps the pickle from becoming watery and diluting the vinegar.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Horseradishfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, vinegar, sugar, clove, cinnamon, pepper. 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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