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Dessert

Citron Sweet Pickle

A preserved fruit made by soaking watermelon rind in brine, alum, and spices, then boiling with vinegar and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Citron Sweet Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Soak the cut rind of watermelon in strong brine for nine days.

  2. Soak in strong alum-water for 24 hours.

  3. Rinse in clear water for 24 hours, changing the water several times.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. In a pot, combine 1 quart of vinegar, 2.5 pounds of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of allspice, and 1 teaspoon of cloves.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the fruit and boil until a fork can easily pierce it.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

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

  4. Vinegar + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,386 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + allspicetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,938 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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 main body, becoming firm and tender through brining and cooking.
Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and helps form the thick, sweet syrup that coats the rind.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp tang and helps preserve it.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.
Cloves
Adds strong aromatic spice flavour to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil until a fork can easily pierce the fruit. Rind that is undercooked stays tough and crisp, while overcooking makes it mushy. A fork test shows when the cell walls have softened enough to be tender yet still hold their shape.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Gingerfits less well

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

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