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Melon Mangoes

A melon stuffed with mustard seeds, garlic, and spices, then preserved in a vinegar brine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Melon Mangoes

Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Melon Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melon

  1. Cut a small square piece out of one side of the melon and remove the seeds.

  2. Mix the seeds with mustard seeds and shredded garlic, then stuff the mixture into the melon.

  3. Replace the square piece and bind it with pack-thread.

Pickle

  1. Boil the vinegar with pepper, salt, and ginger, allowing for evaporation.

  2. Pour the boiling vinegar over the stuffed melon for four consecutive days.

  3. On the last day, add mustard flour and grated horseradish to the vinegar just before it boils.

  4. Ensure the melon is well covered with vinegar to prevent spoilage.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Melon
Serves as the vessel and the main body that absorbs the pickling vinegar over several days.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the melon and gives it a sharp, tangy flavour.
Mustard seeds
Add a pungent, sharp flavour that infuses the melon from the inside.
Garlic
Adds aromatic pungency that flavours the melon's interior.
Mustard flour
Adds sharp mustard heat that blends into the pickling vinegar.
Horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent heat to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Keep the melon fully submerged in vinegar. Any part of the melon left above the liquid can spoil, since acidity only preserves what it covers. Keeping it well covered for all four days is what makes the pickle safe and even in flavour.

Swap the melon

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

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

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