Why it works: Melon and grape work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 126 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓
Water-melon Rind
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rind
Cut the rind into fanciful shapes with a sharp knife.
Weigh the rind and use 1.5 pounds of sugar for every pound of rind.
Soak the rind in weak alum water for 3 days.
Soak the rind in clear water for 24 hours.
Layer the rind in a kettle lined with grape leaves, covering it with water.
Simmer the rind for 2 hours.
Spread the rind on dishes to cool.
Make the syrup
In the kettle, combine sugar with 1 pint of water for every 1.5 pounds of sugar and the beaten egg whites.
Boil the mixture.
Skim off the egg.
Strain the syrup.
Wipe out the kettle.
Return the syrup and boil again.
Add the rind.
Cook the rind for 2 hours.
Remove the rind.
Boil the syrup again.
Pour the syrup over the rind.
Finish
The next day, pour off the syrup.
Boil the juice of 1 lemon for every quart of syrup.
Pour the lemon juice over the rind when thick.
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.
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Melon + grapetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together126 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Melon + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together362 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Grape + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,412 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 rind
- Forms the candied body; it absorbs syrup and turns translucent and firm as it cooks.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens and preserves the rind, drawing out moisture and keeping it firm and glossy.
- Alum water
- Firms the rind's flesh so it holds its shape through long simmering and syrup soaking.
- Egg whites
- Bind impurities in the syrup so they rise as foam that can be skimmed off, clarifying it.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet syrup and balances its sweetness.
The step that matters
Simmer and soak the rind gently. Rind is cooked in stages so sugar can slowly replace the water inside it. Boiling too hard or rushing the syrup stages can make the rind tough, cloudy, or uneven.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (melon, sugar, grape, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against melon, sugar, grape, egg. 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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