Sweet Pickle of Melon

Modern cookery for private families · Acton, Eliza · 1845
Source
Modern cookery for private families
Status
success · extracted 13 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (17)
For the pickle
Alternative sweet pickle of melon
A Common Sweet Pickle of Melon
Instructions (18)
  1. Take one or two well-flavoured melons, within three or four days of their being fully ripe.
  2. Pare off the outer rind, clear them from the seeds, and cut them into slices of about half an inch thick.
  3. Lay them into good vinegar and let them remain in it for ten days.
  4. Cover them with cold fresh vinegar, and simmer them very gently until they are tender.
  5. Lift them on to a sieve reversed, to drain, and when they are quite cold stick a couple of cloves into each slice.
  6. Lay them into a jar (a glass one, if at hand) and cover them well with cold syrup, made with ten ounces of sugar to the pint of water, boiled quickly together for twenty minutes.
  7. In about a week take them from the syrup, let it drain from them a little, then put them into jars in which they are to be stored.
  8. Cover them again thoroughly with good vinegar, which has been boiled for an instant, and left to become quite cold before it is added to them.
Serving suggestions
  1. This pickle is intended to be served more particularly with roast mutton, hare, and venison, instead of currant jelly, but it is very good with stewed meat also.
  2. Small blades of cinnamon, and a larger proportion of cloves are sometimes stuck into the melon, but their flavour should not prevail too strongly.
Notes on fruit selection
  1. We have found the receipt answer extremely well as we have given it, when tried with small green melons, cut within four days of being fit for table.
Alternative preparation summary
  1. Melons not quite ripe, pared from hard rind and sliced, 1 or 2: in vinegar 10 days.
  2. Simmered in it until tender.
  3. In syrup 6 to 7 days.
  4. In fresh vinegar to remain.
  5. Ready to serve in a month.
A Common Sweet Pickle of Melon
  1. Prepare the fruit as above.
  2. In a fortnight simmer it until tender; drain, and lay it into jars, and pour on it while just warm, a pickle made with a pound and two ounces of coarse brown sugar, twenty cloves, and half a drachm of cinnamon to the pint of vinegar, boiled together for ten minutes.
Original Text
SWEET PICKLE OF MELON. (FOREIGN RECEIPT.) (To serve with Roast Meat.) Take, within three or four days of their being fully ripe, one or two well-flavoured melons; just pare off the outer rind, clear them from the seeds, and cut them into slices of about half an inch thick; lay them into good vinegar, and let them remain in it for ten days; then cover them with cold fresh vinegar, and simmer them very gently until they are tender. Lift them on to a sieve reversed, to drain, and when they are quite cold stick a couple of cloves into each slice, lay them into a jar (a glass one, if at hand) and cover them well with cold syrup, made with ten ounces of sugar to the pint of water, boiled quickly together for twenty minutes. In about a week take them from the syrup, let it drain from them a little, then put them into jars in which they are to be stored, and cover them again thoroughly with good vinegar, which has been boiled for an instant, and left to become quite cold before it is added to them. 535This pickle is intended to be served more particularly with roast mutton, hare, and venison, instead of currant jelly, but it is very good with stewed meat also. Small blades of cinnamon, and a larger proportion of cloves are sometimes stuck into the melon, but their flavour should not prevail too strongly. We have found the receipt answer extremely well as we have given it, when tried with small green melons, cut within four days of being fit for table. Melons not quite ripe, pared from hard rind and sliced, 1 or 2: in vinegar 10 days. Simmered in it until tender. In syrup 6 to 7 days. In fresh vinegar to remain. Ready to serve in a month. A Common Sweet Pickle of Melon.—Prepare the fruit as above. In a fortnight simmer it until tender; drain, and lay it into jars, and pour on it while just warm, a pickle made with a pound and two ounces of coarse brown sugar, twenty cloves, and half a drachm of cinnamon to the pint of vinegar, boiled together for ten minutes.
Notes
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