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To Pickle or Make Mangoes of Melons

This recipe pickles green melons in a brine with spices and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pickle or Make Mangoes of Melons

Ingredients

Directions

Brine the melons

  1. Make a strong brine with water and coarse sea salt that can float an egg.

  2. Pour the boiling brine over the melons, keeping them submerged for 5-6 days.

Prepare the melons

  1. Slit the melons on one side, remove the seeds, and scrape the insides slightly.

  2. Wash the melons with cold water.

  3. Stuff the melons with garlic, ginger, nutmeg, and whole pepper.

  4. Fill the melons with mustard seed.

Pickle and seal

  1. Place the melons in an earthen pot with the slit side up.

  2. Mix 1 part mustard with 2 parts vinegar.

  3. Pour the mixture over the melons while hot, ensuring they are covered.

  4. Seal the pot tightly.

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. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Garlic + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,402 recipes

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

  4. Melon + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Green melons
Form the pickle itself, becoming tender and absorbing the brine and spiced vinegar flavours.
Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the melons and seasons them during the brine stage.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the melons and gives the pickle its sharp flavour.
Mustard seed
Adds a pungent, slightly bitter heat and aroma as it infuses the melons.

The step that matters

Keeping the melons fully submerged in the brine. Any part exposed to air can spoil or grow mould during the multi-day brine, because salt and acid only protect the submerged surfaces. Full coverage keeps the fermentation and preservation even.

Swap the melon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, mustard, vinegar):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Melonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, mustard, vinegar. 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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