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Pickled Watermelon Rinds

A preserved condiment made by pickling watermelon rinds in a sweet and spiced vinegar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Pickled Watermelon Rinds

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rinds

  1. Pare the rinds, removing the colored portion, and cut into strips until you have a 10-quart pail full.

  2. Cover the rinds with cold water and add enough alum to give the water a strong taste.

  3. Soak overnight.

  4. Drain the rinds well.

Make the pickle

  1. For each pint of vinegar, add 1 cup of sugar, and a scant tablespoon each of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice (or nutmeg).

  2. Boil the vinegar and sugar together, skimming well.

  3. Add the rinds and cover with a large plate.

  4. Boil until the rinds can be easily pricked with a silver fork.

  5. Halfway through boiling, add the spice bags.

  6. Pour everything into a jar.

  7. Place plates over the rinds to keep them submerged in the vinegar.

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

Watermelon rinds
Form the pickled body, becoming tender and translucent as they simmer in the syrup.
Vinegar
Provides the acidity that preserves the rinds and gives the pickle its sharp flavor.
Sugar
Balances the vinegar's sharpness and adds sweetness to the syrup.
Alum
Firms the rind tissue so it stays crisp rather than turning mushy during cooking.

The step that matters

Boiling the rinds in the syrup. Boil only until a silver fork pricks the rinds easily. Overcooking breaks down the pectin-rich rind tissue into a soft, mushy texture, while underdone rinds stay tough and fibrous.

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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