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Dessert

Tomato and Watermelon Preserves

A sweet preserve made from tomatoes, watermelon, sugar, lemon juice, and optional cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Tomato and Watermelon Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop tomatoes and watermelon into small pieces.

Cook

  1. In a pot, combine chopped tomatoes, watermelon, and sugar.

  2. Add lemon juice and cinnamon if desired.

  3. Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens, stirring frequently.

Jar

  1. Pour into sterilized jars and seal while 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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Tomato + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,348 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Tomatoes
Provide the main bulk and pectin-free body that cooks down into the preserve.
Watermelon
Adds mild sweetness and moisture that softens and thickens as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens and helps thicken the mixture while preserving it.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and supports safe preserving.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture thickens. Cooking drives off water and concentrates sugar, so the mixture sets as it cools. Stirring often prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the cinnamon

The recipe marks cinnamon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, sugar, lemon):

  1. Corianderfits better
  2. Basilfits about as well
  3. Oreganofits about as well
  4. Cinnamonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, sugar, 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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