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Dessert

Watermelon Preserve

A preserve made from watermelon, ginger, lemon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Watermelon Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the watermelon

  1. Cut the watermelon, add a heaping tablespoon of coarse sea salt and powdered alum, and let it stand until dissolved.

  2. Place the watermelon in a serving kettle, cover with water, and press down with a plate to keep it submerged.

  3. Cook until easily pierced with a fork.

  4. Drain and rinse in fresh water.

Make the syrup

  1. Bruise and tie the ginger root in a muslin bag.

  2. Boil it in 1 quart of water.

  3. Boil the lemons in a small quantity of water.

  4. Combine the water from the ginger and lemons.

  5. Add enough sugar to create a rich syrup.

Cook and finish

  1. Add the watermelon and lemon slices.

  2. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes.

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. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Ginger + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ginger and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
Forms the bulk of the preserve, becoming tender and translucent as it cooks in syrup.
Powdered alum
Firms the watermelon flesh so it holds its shape during long cooking.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and thickens the syrup, helping preserve the fruit.
Lemons
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
Ginger root
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the syrup.

The step that matters

Drain and rinse in fresh water. Rinsing removes excess salt and alum left from the soak. Leftover residue can give the preserve a harsh, bitter or chemical taste.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Pearfits about as well
  4. Raisinfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, sugar, syrup. 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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