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Preserve

Watermelon Rind Preserves

Preserves made from watermelon rind, vine and grape leaves, powdered alum, sugar, and water, steamed and boiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,490 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Watermelon Rind Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Remove the outer rind of the watermelon and scrape out the soft inside.

  2. Cut the rind into strips.

Firm the rind

  1. Line a kettle with vine leaves, layering the rind with grape leaves and sprinkling each layer with powdered alum.

  2. Pour in a little cold water, cover the kettle, and steam for three hours without boiling.

  3. Drain the rind and soak it in cold water for four hours, changing the water every hour.

Make the syrup

  1. In a preserving kettle, combine 2.5 pounds of sugar and 1 quart of water, bring to a boil, and skim off any scum.

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. Grape + sugartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,490 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Watermelon rind
Forms the bulk of the preserve and takes on the sweet syrup as its texture softens.
Powdered alum
Helps the rind stay firm and crisp during steaming and cooking.
Granulated sugar
Makes the syrup that sweetens the rind and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Steaming without boiling. If the kettle boils during steaming, the rind can break down and turn soft rather than firm. Gentle steam keeps the strips intact so they hold their shape in the syrup.

“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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