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Watermelon Pickles
Pare off the green part of the rind; cut the white part into strips of desired size and cover with boiling water in which alum has been dissolved. Let stand over night in this, then soak several hours in fresh cold rain water. Place in preserving kettle and cook in fresh hot water till tender. Have ready a syrup made of equal parts of vinegar and sugar. Cook in this a stick of cinnamon, several sliced lemons, (without seeds) and a little ginger-root. When thick and well flavoured place the drained melon in this and cook till it is clear. Take out the melon; place in jars; boil down the syrup till thick; pour over the rinds and seal.
A sweet-sour rind pickle of the old thrift school, written for a cook who already knew what a preserving kettle and a proper syrup looked like. The method is sound; the measurements and the sealing are where it needs translating.
- What you are actually picklingOnly the firm white layer between the green skin and the pink flesh. Pare the green off with a vegetable peeler and cut away every trace of red, which turns to mush and clouds the syrup. A large melon yields roughly 2-3 lb of prepared rind.
- The alum soakAlum (potassium aluminium sulphate) was a standard nineteenth-century firming agent and is still sold as pickling alum. Period recipes give it very loosely, often as a lump or a spoonful to a pan of water rather than a fixed measure. Modern practice generally skips it altogether, since a long slow simmer and a well-timed cook keep the rind firm without any metallic aftertaste; if you use it, rinse thoroughly, which is exactly what the fresh-water soak is for.
- Rain waterThe point was soft water, free of the lime and iron that darken pickles and toughen the rind. Filtered or distilled water does the same job.
- The syrup"Equal parts vinegar and sugar" is unspecified in the original and could be read by volume or by weight; volume is the likelier reading. For this quantity of rind, something in the region of 4 cups of each, using a 5% cider or white vinegar. Do not dilute the vinegar further: the melon itself will release water into the syrup as it cooks.
- SpicesThe recipe calls for one stick of cinnamon, several thinly sliced lemons (seeds removed) and a little ginger root. Tying the cinnamon and ginger in cheesecloth saves picking them out later; the recipe does not say what becomes of the lemon slices.
- Cooking to "clear"This is the hinge. The rind is done when it goes from chalky white to translucent all the way through, which takes 30-45 minutes at a bare simmer. Rushing it at a boil sets the outside and leaves an opaque, crunchy core that never softens in the jar.
- Sealing"Pour over and seal" is open-kettle canning, which was ordinary practice in the period and is no longer considered reliable for shelf storage. Treat these as refrigerator pickles and use them within a couple of months, or follow a current tested recipe with a boiling-water-bath process time if you want them on a shelf.
- Yield and useProbably around three pints, depending on the melon. A period of resting in the syrup improves the flavour. Sweet pickles of this type were commonly served with cold ham or roast pork, or on a relish plate.
Watermelon rind pickle is a monument to household thrift: the rind is a substantial share of the melon's weight and would otherwise have been thrown out or fed to stock. Sweet spiced pickles of this kind — fruit or vegetable simmered in a vinegar-and-sugar syrup with cinnamon, clove and ginger — belong to the English preserving tradition and appear in American cookbooks through the nineteenth century, becoming particularly associated with Southern tables where watermelons were plentiful. The alum step, the soft-water soak and the instruction to cook "till it is clear" are stock phrases of the period, recurring in similar form across household and community cookbooks.