Skip to main content
Dessert

Cantelope Sweet Pickle

A preserved sweet pickle made from cantaloupe, vinegar, spices, and sugar.

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

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 Sweet Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melon

  1. Soak the cantaloupe in weak brine overnight.

  2. Boil the cantaloupe in weak alum water until transparent.

  3. Remove the cantaloupe and place it in a jar.

Make the syrup and pack

  1. In a pot, combine cider vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, and sugar; bring to a boil.

  2. Add the cantaloupe to the boiling mixture and cook for 20 more minutes.

  3. Pour the mixture into a jar and cover it tightly.

  4. Scald the jar contents over two mornings.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cider + vinegartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,431 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cider + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,683 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

Cinnamon and sugar 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
Forms the pickled flesh, which becomes tender and translucent as it is cooked and soaked.
Granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and, with the vinegar, the sweet-sour balance of the pickle.
Cider vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the fruit and sharpens the sweet syrup.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma and flavour to the syrup.
Cloves
Contributes warm, spicy aroma and flavour to the syrup.

The step that matters

Boil the cantaloupe in weak alum water until transparent. Alum firms the fruit's cell structure so it holds its shape rather than turning mushy in the hot syrup. Cooking past the point of transparency softens it too far.

Swap the clove

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

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

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

You might also like

Cinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipesClove CakeClove Cake53 recipesCinnamon CakeCinnamon Cake42 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes