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Preserve

Cantelope Pickles

Pickled cantaloupe pieces preserved in a sweet syrup of vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, cloves and allspice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Cantelope Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melon

  1. Wash the cantaloupes.

  2. Peel the cantaloupes.

  3. Cut the cantaloupes into small pieces.

  4. Remove the seeds.

  5. Cover the cantaloupes with vinegar and let them sit for 24 hours.

  6. Discard 1 quart of vinegar for each quart remaining.

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine the remaining vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, skim the mixture and add the cantaloupe pieces.

  4. Boil for 15 minutes, then remove the cantaloupes.

  5. Boil and skim the syrup again.

  6. Pour the syrup boiling hot over the cantaloupes.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Vinegar + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).

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

Cantaloupe (in the method)
Forms the pickled fruit itself, softening and taking on the syrup's flavor during cooking.
Vinegar
Acidity that preserves the fruit and gives the pickle its sharp, tangy character.
Sugar
Sweetness that balances the vinegar and thickens the syrup as it boils down.
Stick cinnamon
Provides warm aroma and flavor to the syrup and fruit.
Cloves
Adds strong, warm aroma to the spiced syrup.
Allspice
Adds warm, peppery aroma that rounds out the spice blend.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup and fruit in stages. Skimming the syrup removes foam and impurities that would cloud the pickle. Boiling the fruit only 15 minutes keeps its texture from breaking down, while pouring the syrup boiling hot ensures it penetrates the pieces evenly.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, allspice):

  1. Clovethe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, allspice. 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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