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Dessert

Melon Mangoes

Pickled cantaloupes stuffed with cabbage, spices, and pickled cucumber, preserved in brine and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Melon Mangoes

Why it works: Mustard and horseradish match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,832 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Melon Mangoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the melons

  1. Prepare a strong brine with salt and water and soak the cantaloupes for 24 hours.

  2. Remove the cantaloupes from the brine.

  3. Cut a slice from one side of each cantaloupe.

  4. Clean out the seeds.

  5. Rinse the cantaloupes in cold water.

  6. Return the cantaloupes to the brine.

  7. Scald the cantaloupes several mornings by boiling the brine in a brass kettle.

  8. When they are green enough, scald them in a mixture of vinegar and water for three days.

Stuff and pickle

  1. Prepare a stuffing with chopped cabbage, mustard seed, celery seed, pickled cucumber, onion, horseradish, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, sugar, and pepper.

  2. Fill each cantaloupe with the stuffing.

  3. Place the stuffed cantaloupes in a stone jar.

  4. Cover the cantaloupes with strong cider vinegar.

  5. Optionally add a teaspoon of salad oil to each.

  6. Tie the cantaloupes with strips of bleached cotton to secure the stuffing.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mustard + horseradishtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Mustard + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cucumber + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together640 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cabbage + horseradishtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Mustard + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,281 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Young cantaloupes
Serve as the hollowed, pickled shell that holds the stuffing.
Coarse sea salt
Forms the strong brine that draws water out and firms the melon flesh.
Vinegar
Acidifies the brine and scalding liquid, preserving the melons and sharpening their flavour.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and crunch to the stuffing and absorbs the pickling flavours.
Cider vinegar
Covers the stuffed melons, adding acidity that preserves and tangs the pickle.
Sugar
Balances the sharpness of the vinegar with a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Soaking in strong brine and repeated scalding. Salt and heat must be strong enough to firm the flesh and preserve it without leaving it soft or spoiled. Scalding in acid over several days gradually cooks and sets the melon, so timing and brine strength matter.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, vinegar, cabbage, mustard, celery, cucumber, horseradish):

  1. Lettucefits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, vinegar, cabbage, mustard, celery, cucumber, horseradish. 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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