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Dessert

Watermel Rind Preserves

Preserves made from watermelon rind, vine and grape leaves, powdered alum, sugar, and water, steamed and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,490 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Watermel Rind Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Remove the outer rind of the watermelon and scrape out the soft inside.

  2. Cut the rind into strips.

Firm and steam

  1. Line a kettle with vine leaves and layer the rind with grape leaves, sprinkling each layer lightly with powdered alum.

  2. Add a small amount of cold water, cover the kettle, and steam for 3 hours without boiling.

  3. Drain the rind and soak it in cold water for 4 hours, changing the water every hour.

Make the syrup

  1. In a preserving kettle, combine 2 ½ pounds of sugar and 1 quart of water, and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

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. Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,490 recipes

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

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 preserve, providing its bite and texture once cooked.
Powdered alum
Helps the rind stay firm by hardening its pectin during steaming and soaking.
Grape leaves
Their tannins help keep the rind crisp rather than soft during steaming.
Vine leaves
Their tannins help keep the rind crisp rather than soft during steaming.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Steam without boiling. Boiling the rind breaks down its cell walls and makes it soft and mushy. Gentle steaming with only a little water keeps the pieces intact and firm, which the later soaking and syrup stages depend on.

“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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