Sweet Watermelon Rind Pickle

Source: Abby Fisher, 1881

History

"Sweet Watermelon Rind Pickle" is recipe No. 86 in "What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking" (San Francisco, 1881), in the Pickles, Sauces, Etc. section. It is a long, patient preparation that turns what would be discarded into a preserve. Fisher scrapes all the flesh from the rind and pares away the dark outer skin, leaving only the white, then buries it in salt: "It will have to remain under salt one week before pickling; the rind will keep in salt from year to year." To pickle it, the rind is soaked in clear water changed three times a day, dried with a clean cloth, scalded four minutes in boiling vinegar and left to sit in that vinegar four days. It is then drained, sugared thickly for a day, and finished in a syrup — ten pounds of rind to twelve pounds of sugar — cooked with a teacupful of white ginger root and the peel of three lemons until thick and clear.

This is exactly the work Fisher was decorated for. Her title page records two medals at the San Francisco Mechanics' Institute Fair in 1880, one for best pickles and sauces, and a diploma at the Sacramento State Fair in 1879; by 1882 she was listed in her own right as a pickle manufacturer.

Fisher was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in June 1831 to Abbie Clifton. Genealogical research in San Francisco records identifies her father as James J. Andrews, an Orangeburg planter who held some seventy people in slavery, and an 1869 receipt from the Freedman's Savings and Trust in Mobile records her under her mother's name. Before 1865, censuses recorded only an enslaver's name with the age and sex of those he held, so no surviving record names Fisher herself; Karen Hess, who rediscovered her book, noted that absence of documentation. She could neither read nor write and dictated the book from "an experience of upwards of thirty-five years."

The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this particular pickle. It stands as Fisher's own, set down under her name.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Scrape away all soft flesh from the inside of the watermelon rind.
  2. Carefully slice away the dark green outer skin from the rind, leaving only the white portion.
  3. Lay the white rind flat and cover it thoroughly with salt.
  4. Allow the salted rind to remain for one week.
  5. Remove the cured rind from salt and place it in clear water.
  6. Change the water three times daily, or every four hours, to thoroughly desalt the rind.
  7. Remove the rind from water and dry it completely with a clean cloth.
  8. Bring vinegar to a boil.
  9. Place the prepared rind into the boiling vinegar and let it scald for four minutes.
  10. Remove from the fire and allow the rind to lay in the vinegar for four days.
  11. Remove the rind from the vinegar and drain it well.
  12. Sprinkle sugar thickly over the rind and let it remain for one day.
  13. Take the syrup that has accumulated from the sugared rind and add eight pounds of sugar to it.
  14. Bring the sugar mixture to a boil and cook until it reaches a thick, clear consistency.
  15. While the syrup is cooking, add one teacupful of white ginger root and the peel of three lemons.
  16. Place the prepared rind into the boiling syrup.
  17. Let the rind cook in the syrup until a fork can pass through it with ease, indicating it is done.
  18. Allow the pickle to cool completely.
  19. Pack the cooled rind into jars or bottles and cover with syrup and vinegar in the proportion of one pint of vinegar to one quart of syrup.
  20. Ensure the rind is well covered with the vinegar and syrup mixture.

View on Foodymology