Once the weather warms up, the Ankle Biters consume vast quantities of watermelon. Both in chunks and whizzed up in the thermomix and frozen as icy poles. They can’t get enough of the stuff.
photo by kurisurokku, some rights reserved
Growing up I read and reread the ‘Little House’ books and ‘Farmer Boy’ by Laura Ingalls Wilder. In fact I still reread them every year or so. As a little girl I didn’t want to be a princess or a fairy or a bride. I wanted to be Laura Ingall’s. Some say I still do.
Full disclosure. I also wanted to be Little Lord Fauntleroy on occasion and I fully acknowledge the weirdness of that. I was kind of a weird child who spent freakish amounts of time up a tree with her head in a book. Once again, some would say that still applies.
Back to the watermelon. In ‘Farmer Boy’, Almanzo is scolded by his elder sister Eliza for feeding watermelon rind to his pig Lucy. Eliza wants to make watermelon rind pickles. This fascinated me for more than 20 years. What on earth are watermelon rind pickles? Last summer I wet on a mission of discovery. I found recipes lurking on the net and gave it a try. I decided it was worthy of repetition, particularly as it reduces waste. Which I am no friend of.
Watermelon rind pickles
adapted from homecooking.com
To prepare rind, remove green outer skin and all pink flesh. Cut remaining white into pieces no bigger than 1cm x 1cm. I used roughly 1/4 watermelon to make this batch, it produced two smallish jars of pickles.
2 1/2 cups prepared watermelon rind
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 cup sugar (I know I hate using sugar but my last preserves didn’t work amazingly with rapadura and I didn’t have time to work out how to get round this)
1 cinnamon stick, broken
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1cm piece of ginger
1 cardamon pod
1 tablespoon salt
- Place rind in a saucepan with salt and cover with water. Bring to boil and simmer until tender. Drain and chill rind in the freezer for 20 – 30 minutes.
- Place vinegar and sugar in a small – medium saucepan. Place spices in a large tea infuser (or cheesecloth) and add to saucepan. Bring to boil and boil 5 minutes.
- Add watermelon rind to syrup. Simmer until rind becomes translucent, about 10 minutes. Remove and discard spices.
- Pack rind and syrup into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1cm head space. Adjust lids and process in boiling water bath 20 minutes.
LOL !! I did this a few years ago using a Stephanie Alexander recipe, when I made a big batch of melon balls for a party. Then I ate W/m pickles for years after. Gave heaps away. Next lot of peel went in the compost.
Thermomixers last blog post..Thermomix Moroccan Carrot Salad
I certainly won’t be pickling ALL our peel but last year’s supply is long gone so I’m happy to make a few batches.
I have never heard of this! (I’m also realising through reading food blogs that I’m much more ignorant about food than I ever thought possible).
What do these taste like? I just can’t imagine the flavour…
Docwitchs last blog post..Oh Banana, I Do Love Thee
It’s very much a deep southern USA thing I believe. They taste a little chutney or relish like but much sweeter then normal. Very sweet with a savoury edge. Good with a sharp cheese and meat. Sweet enough to be used as a jam too in my opinion.
I’ve never eaten watermelon rind pickles before. Do they taste the same as regular cucumber pickles?
Nates last blog post..California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco)
No Nate, they’re much sweeter.