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Watermelon Pickles

Pickled watermelon rind prepared with salt, sugar, vinegar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Watermelon Pickles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Cut the watermelon rind into squares and soak in strong salt water overnight.

  2. Drain the rind and let it stand in clear water for 1 hour.

  3. Place the rind in a kettle of cold water and boil until transparent and tender.

Make the syrup and pickle

  1. Weigh the rinds; for every 6 pounds, use 3 pounds of sugar, 1 pint of vinegar, and the specified spices.

  2. Bring the vinegar, sugar, and spices to a boil and pour over the watermelon rind.

  3. Repeat this process for two mornings.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + cassiatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  5. Clove + cassiatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rind
Provides the main bulk and, once cooked, a tender, translucent texture that absorbs the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the pickle and, through concentration, helps preserve the rind and give it a glossy texture.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the pickle.
Cloves
Contribute warm, aromatic spice flavor to the syrup.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, sweet aromatic flavor to the syrup.
Candied ginger
Adds sweet, spicy aroma and a chewy bite to the pickle.

The step that matters

Boiling the rind until transparent and tender. Rind must be cooked long enough to soften fully and turn translucent, but not so long it falls apart. Underboiled rind stays tough and opaque and will not absorb the syrup evenly, while overcooked rind turns mushy.

Swap the cassia

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Cassiathe original

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