We are pickle people, my sons and I. Our favorites are dill pickles, the ones my brother-in-law refers to as "sour German pickles," the ones my other grandma, Grandma Larson, was known for.
My ten-year-old recommended I make these watermelon pickles with dill because then he'd probably like them. He might be on to something, but that's a project for another day - and another forum since here we're sticking with Grandma's recipes.
Grandma wrote this recipe down on the back of an A&W Drive-in receipt back in July 1971, when you could get a burger for 55 cents, if I'm reading this correctly, and a cup of coffee for 15 cents. Just think, fast food for three people cost only $2.37.
I just love these primary sources, though I'm left wondering which three people went to the drive-in that day...
At any rate, on the back was the recipe I made this past week:
After I had already started making these, I realized that there were likely some key pieces of information missing. For example, there's no mention of salt at all. Who's ever made pickles without salt? So I looked for watermelon pickle recipes online and found one that's very similar to this one Grandma wrote down. I figured out that I should have soaked the rind in salt water for 24 hours. I was already boiling the rind by that time, so I added a few tablespoons of salt to the simmering water. In comparing this to the online recipe, I also decided that I could skip the part about chilling the boiled rind in ice water for two hours, and probably didn't need to cook the rind as long as it stated above.
I used the rind of about half a medium watermelon for this experimental batch. After simmering the peeled rind for seven minutes, I drained the salted water, mixed the brine in the cooking pot (1 cup vinegar, 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup water, 1 stick cinnamon, 12 whole cloves, and 12 whole peppercorns) and brought it to a boil. Then I added the rind back to the pot, and simmered for about three minutes. After this, transfer the hot rind pieces to a glass jar or bowl. Cool and refrigerate overnight.
I've made watermelon rind pickles before, and one of the things I like best about them is that it's a way to transform what would otherwise be destined for the compost bin into something edible. In addition to the spices used here, the pickling spice mix I typically use also contains bay leaf, red pepper flakes, and allspice berries. I was curious to see how this recipe compared. These pickles are certainly sweet, with a strong cinnamon flavor. I like cinnamon, so I like them, but I miss the hot pepper in there. Next time I'd probably add some red pepper flakes for a more complex pickle.