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Dessert

Water-melon Rind

A preserved watermelon rind soaked, boiled, and sweetened in a syrup of alum, ginger, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Water-melon Rind

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Cut the watermelon rind into shapes like flowers or leaves and place in a brine strong enough to float an egg. Cover with grape leaves and set aside.

  2. Soak the rind in fresh water, changing it until all salt taste is removed.

  3. Dissolve 4 tablespoons of pulverized alum in 1 gallon of water.

  4. Lay the rind in this solution, covered with grape or cabbage leaves, and simmer until it turns a pretty green.

  5. Soak the rind in soft water to remove the alum.

Make the ginger syrup

  1. Pour boiling water over ½ pound of white ginger and let it soften. Slice the ginger into thin pieces.

  2. Boil the ginger in ½ gallon of water with 2 pounds of sugar to create a thin syrup.

Cook and rest the rind

  1. Gently boil the rind in the syrup for 30 minutes, adding water to keep it covered.

  2. Remove the rind and let it sit for 4 days.

  3. Boil the rind again, adding 2 pounds of sugar and more water if necessary.

  4. Repeat this boiling process 6 or 7 times until the syrup is rich and thick.

  5. Ensure the rind is always covered with syrup, adding water as needed.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

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

Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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 candied pieces, becoming tender and absorbing the syrup as it cooks.
Granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it concentrates in repeated boils, a thick, rich syrup.
White ginger
Adds aroma and a warm, spicy flavor to the syrup.
Alum
Firms the rind's texture and helps it hold its green color during simmering.

The step that matters

Keep the rind fully covered with syrup during each boil. Any part of the rind left exposed can dry out, darken, or cook unevenly, so adding water to keep it submerged matters throughout the repeated boils.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Nutmegfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup. 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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