Watermelon Rind Pickles

When I was a girl my stay-at-home mother made this delicacy every time we had watermelon.  I made it a couple times when Robin was young so she could have an opportunity to taste it but have not made it in decades.  Since this is “Life After the R Word” I didn’t throw away the rind from the watermelon we had this past weekend and used my free time this morning to make it.  Yum.  It is as good as I remembered.

For details and the recipe…

This is my mother’s recipe written in her handwriting.  In the upper right corner she wrote “Best.”

WATERMELON PICKLES

Peel the green from the rind, remove all pink and cut the white rind into cubes.  Soak over night in 4 tablespoons salt in 1 quart water.

In the morning, drain salt water, put cubed rind in a pot, cover with fresh water and cook until almost tender.  Drain and set aside while you make the syrup.

Syrup:  In a saucepan

• 4 Cups Sugar
• 2 Cups vinegar
• 4 teaspoons whole cloves
• 8 cinnamon sticks
• a little mustard seed
• Place Cloves, cinnamon sticks and mustard seed  in a cheesecloth bag

Boil syrup and let stand 15 minutes

Add cubed watermelon rind and cook until clear and transparent.  She gives no time but it takes at least 20-30 minutes.  During the cooking some of the pieces will turn white.  Don’t be concerned as the whiteness will go away and they will become clear and transparent.

This recipe is intended for those huge watermelons we used to buy, as mom ends with “Seal at once” which means she was canning them in pint Mason jars.  I put mine in a pottery container and let it sit in the juices until it cooled enough to cover and put in the refrigerator.

I only had rind from half of one of those small watermelons we bought at Giant Eagle so I cut the recipe down to 1 1/2 C sugar, almost 3/4 C vinegar, 2 teaspoons cloves, 3 cinnamon sticks and probably 1/4 teaspoon mustard seed.

This was a spur of the moment idea so I didn’t have any cheesecloth.  I just let the cloves, cinnamon sticks and mustard seed be loose in the syrup.  Looks kind of cute that way.

Ralph won’t eat it.  That is OK.  All the more for me.  Don’t be finicky.  When you have watermelon and some time, give it a try.