Skip to main content
Main

Watermel Pickle

A pickle made from watermelon rind, sweetened and preserved in a syrup of sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Watermel Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Soak the watermelon rind in a weak brine overnight.

  2. Rinse the rind well and drop it into strong boiling alum water (1 tablespoon alum to 2 quarts water) for 15 minutes.

  3. Transfer the rind to ice water and let it cool.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. Make a syrup by boiling ½ cup sugar in 1 quart of water.

  2. Drop the rind into the boiling syrup and simmer for 6 to 8 hours.

  3. Pour off the syrup and place the rind into a new syrup made of 2 cups vinegar and 6 cups sugar.

  4. Add spices tied in cheesecloth and boil thoroughly.

  5. Let the mixture sit overnight in the syrup.

Jar and seal

  1. Fill jars with the melon.

  2. Pour the boiling syrup over it and seal the jars.

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. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + syruptop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together385 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rind
Forms the firm, crisp pickled pieces that absorb the syrup.
Powdered alum
Helps the rind stay firm and crisp during cooking.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and draws moisture out of the rind as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavor.

The step that matters

Simmering the rind in syrup. Simmering for 6 to 8 hours lets sugar slowly replace the water in the rind, so it turns translucent and holds its shape. Too brief a simmer leaves the rind tough and under-sweetened.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes