Skip to main content
Main

Sweet Watermelon Pickles

Sweet pickled watermelon rind prepared with cloves, cinnamon, vinegar, sugar, and alum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Sweet Watermelon Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Cut the rind into strips, removing the green and pink portions.

  2. Soak the rind in alum water, using 2 teaspoons of powdered alum for each quart of water.

  3. Heat the mixture slowly to boiling point and cook for 10 minutes.

  4. Drain the rind.

  5. Cover it with ice water.

  6. Let it stand for 2 hours.

  7. Drain again.

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the vinegar, sugar, and seasonings (tied in cheesecloth) for 10 minutes.

  2. Add the rind and cook until tender.

Pack and serve

  1. Transfer to a jar.

  2. Cover with syrup.

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. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Clove + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vinegar + cinnamontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

Cinnamon and sugar 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
Provides the bulk and chewy texture that softens during cooking until tender.
Powdered alum
Firms the rind's structure so it stays crisp rather than turning mushy.
Vinegar
Adds the acidity that sharpens the pickle and helps preserve it.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and balances the sharpness of the vinegar.
Cloves
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.
Cinnamon
Contributes sweet woody aroma that complements the cloves.

The step that matters

Cook the rind until tender. The rind must be cooked only until tender. Underdone rind stays tough, while overcooking breaks down its structure, even though the alum has already firmed it.

Swap the clove

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

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

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

More watermelon pickles recipes

Sweet 5 See all 23 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes