Skip to main content
Dessert

Melon Rind Preserved

A preserved melon rind made by simmering with vine leaves, alum, spices, and a sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Melon Rind Preserved

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Pare the outer skin of the melon rind and cut it into shapes.

  2. Simmer the rind with vine leaves and a little alum to green it.

Make the syrup

  1. Make a syrup by combining 1 cup of sugar with 1 pint of water.

  2. Add all kinds of ground spices to the syrup and simmer until the rind is done through and translucent.

  3. Boil down the syrup and add the rind just before finishing.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the rind by thickening the liquid.
Melon rind (in the method)
Forms the main body of the preserve, becoming tender and translucent as it cooks in syrup.
Alum
Firms the rind's texture so it holds its shape during long simmering.

The step that matters

Simmering the rind in the syrup until translucent. Cooking too briefly leaves the rind opaque and tough, while overcooking can make it collapse. Gradual simmering lets sugar slowly replace the water in the rind, so it turns clear and holds its shape.

“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

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes