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Dessert

Sweet Watermelon Pickle

A sweet pickle made from watermelon rind, sugar, vinegar, spices, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Sweet Watermelon Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Cut the watermelon rind into small pieces and soak for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Weigh the soaked rind and combine with sugar and vinegar in a saucepan.

Make the syrup

  1. Bring the mixture to a boil, skim well, and add the spice bag.

  2. Cook for 4 minutes, then pour the boiling mixture over the rind.

  3. Allow to stand overnight, then drain the syrup from the rind.

  4. Boil the syrup again with the spice bag and pour it over the rind.

  5. Repeat this process twice.

Finish and seal

  1. Put the rind and syrup into a preserving kettle and boil for 3 minutes.

  2. Add the strained juice of 4 lemons and cook for 3 more minutes.

  3. Seal the mixture in hot, sterilized fruit jars while boiling hot.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,557 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rind
Forms the bulk of the pickle and absorbs the sweet, spiced syrup as it soaks.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the pickle and helps preserve it by drawing out moisture and thickening the syrup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps keep it preserved.
Lemon juice
Adds brightness and extra acidity that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Repeated pouring and draining of the syrup. Each boil and pour pulls sugar and flavor into the rind while the syrup concentrates. Skipping repeats or boiling too briefly leaves the rind bland and under-sweetened.

Swap the mace

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

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

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