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Pickled Watermelon Restd

Pickled watermelon rind preserved in a spiced syrup and vinegar.

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 ↓

Pickled Watermelon Restd

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Weigh the watermelon rind.

  2. For every pound of rind, combine 1 pound of sugar and ½ cup of water to make syrup.

  3. Add ½ ounce of sliced ginger-root for every 8 pounds of sugar.

  4. Heat the sugar and water slowly until hot, then add the rind.

  5. Simmer the rind slowly until clear and tender, then remove and spread on dishes.

Spice and pickle

  1. For every pound of rind, add 1 pint of vinegar, 1 tablespoon each of ground mace, cloves, and cinnamon tied in muslin, and 1 tablespoon of turmeric for every 8 pounds of rind to the syrup.

  2. Bring the syrup to a boil, then return the rind and simmer for 15 minutes.

  3. Pack the mixture into glass jars and let it season for 2 to 3 weeks before use.

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. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Cinnamon + turmerictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,197 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rind
Forms the pickle's bulk and, once simmered, becomes tender and translucent.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and, with the vinegar, helps preserve the rind.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and helps preserve the pickle.
Ground cloves
Contributes warm, aromatic spice flavour that infuses into the syrup.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma to the spiced syrup.

The step that matters

Simmering the rind until clear and tender. Cooking slowly lets the rind soften and become translucent as sugar syrup gradually replaces its water. Rushing with high heat can leave it tough or make the syrup scorch.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

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