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Dessert

Queen Preserves

A sweet preserve made from watermelon rind, fruit, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Queen Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rind

  1. Peel the watermelon rind and remove all red or pink meat.

  2. Cut the rind into 1-inch square pieces.

  3. Place the rind in a pot and cover with cold water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt.

  4. Cook until the rind can be easily pierced with a toothpick.

  5. Drain the rind in a colander for at least 2 hours.

Make the preserves

  1. In a granite kettle, combine 9 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water. Stir over heat until the sugar dissolves.

  2. Add the ring of pineapple (cut into small pieces), cherries (cut into quarters), lemon (unpeeled and sliced thin), shredded coconut, chopped citron, raisins, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.

  3. Boil the mixture for 10 minutes.

  4. Add the drained watermelon rind.

  5. Continue boiling until the mixture thickens to a rich consistency, stirring frequently to prevent burning.

Jar

  1. Seal the preserves in airtight glass jars.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Pineapple + coconuttop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together651 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

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

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 preserves and becomes tender when cooked slowly in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserves and, as it thickens, gives them their syrupy body.
Citron
Adds chewy texture and candied-fruit flavor to the preserves.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture throughout the preserves.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Continue boiling until the mixture thickens, stirring frequently. Sugar-rich syrup can scorch on the bottom of the kettle before it thickens, and frequent stirring prevents burning while the sugar concentrates and the preserves set to a rich consistency.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, coconut, raisin, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, coconut, raisin, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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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