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Pickled Watermelon Rind

A preserved rind made by simmering with sugar, water, vinegar, and spices.

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 Rind

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Weigh the watermelon rind.

  2. Combine sugar and water in a pot to make a syrup.

  3. Heat the syrup slowly until hot.

  4. Add the rind to the hot syrup.

Cook the rind

  1. Simmer the rind until clear and tender.

  2. Remove the rind and spread on dishes.

  3. Add vinegar, spices tied in muslin, and turmeric to the syrup.

  4. Bring the syrup to a boil.

  5. Return the rind to the syrup and simmer for 15 minutes.

Jar and season

  1. Transfer the mixture to glass jars and seal.

  2. Let it season for 2 to 3 weeks before using.

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 main body of the pickle and becomes tender and translucent when simmered in syrup.
Sugar
Makes the syrup that sweetens the rind and helps preserve it.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its tang and helps preserve it.
Ground cloves
Contributes warm, aromatic flavor to the syrup.
Ground cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aroma to the pickling liquid.
Ground mace
Adds a delicate warm aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering the rind until clear and tender. Sugar syrup must fully penetrate the rind before the vinegar and spices are added. Undercooked rind stays opaque and firm, while overcooking makes it mushy and it loses its shape.

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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