Skip to main content
Dessert

Watermel Sweet Pickle

A pickled watermelon rind preserved in a sweet vinegar and sugar syrup with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Watermel Sweet Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Pare and cut the watermelon rind into thin pieces.

  2. Place the rind in a porcelain-lined kettle and add salt and enough water to cover.

  3. Boil until tender enough to pierce with a silver fork.

  4. Drain well and pour vinegar and sugar over the fruit.

Make the syrup and pickle

  1. Scald the syrup and pour it over the fruit for eight consecutive days.

  2. Add cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

  3. Scald all together.

  4. Seal the mixture and let it stand for two to three months for better flavor.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rind
Forms the pickled fruit itself, becoming tender and absorbing the syrup and spices.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the rind and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the vinegar and helps preserve the rind.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and flavor to the syrup.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the syrup.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the rind until just tender. Boiling must stop when the rind pierces easily but still holds its shape. Overcooking turns it mushy, while undercooking leaves it tough and unable to absorb the syrup evenly.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, allspice. 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.

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes