Name: Pickled Melons
Ingredients: small green melons; vinegar; sugar

Why it works: Melon and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 416 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Pickled Melons

Ingredients

small green melons
vinegar
sugar

Directions

Cut small green melons from the hard rind and slice them.
Soak the slices in vinegar for 10 days.
Simmer the slices in the vinegar until tender.
Transfer the melons to a syrup for 6 to 7 days.
Store in fresh vinegar until ready to serve, about a month.

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.

Melon + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together416 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Melon + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together796 recipes

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