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Cantaloupe Sweet Pickle

A sweet pickle made by marinating cantaloupe pieces in vinegar and sugar with spices, then boiling and jarred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Cantaloupe Sweet Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melon

  1. Pare and cut the cantaloupes into moderately small pieces.

  2. Cover the pieces with vinegar and let them stand for 24 hours.

  3. Measure the vinegar and discard 1 quart.

Make the syrup

  1. To the remaining vinegar, add 3 pounds of brown sugar, 1 ounce of stick cinnamon, ¼ ounce of cloves, and a few blades of mace.

  2. Place the mixture on the fire and boil hard for 20 minutes, skimming well.

  3. Add the melon and boil all together for 15 minutes.

  4. Repeat this process for three consecutive days, skimming well each time.

Finish and store

  1. Remove the spices after the pickles are done to prevent darkening.

  2. Transfer the mixture into jars for storage.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Ripe cantaloupes
Form the pickled fruit, becoming tender and translucent as they simmer in the syrup.
Vinegar
Acidity that softens the melon and balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Brown sugar
Sweetness and body in the syrup, which thickens as the liquid reduces.
Stick cinnamon
Warm aroma that flavours the syrup as it simmers.

The step that matters

Remove the spices after the pickles are done. Cinnamon, cloves and mace keep releasing color and flavor the longer they stay in the hot syrup. Leaving them in too long can darken the pickles and make them taste harsh or overly spiced.

Swap the mace

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

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

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