Fantabulously Easy Yummy Crispy Watermelon Pickles
photo by Secret Agent
- Ready In:
- 72hrs 35mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Yields:
-
6 Pints
- Serves:
- 36
ingredients
-
THE RIND OF TWO TEN POUND SEEDLESS WATERMELONS
- 1 gallon water, filtered, plus more
- 2 tablespoons pickling salt
- 2 cups cider vinegar
- 7 cups white sugar
- 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon whole cloves
- 4 cinnamon sticks
- 4 inches candied ginger (or more if you want it spicy)
directions
- ZAAR would not let me enter the watermelon rind no matter how I tried so it is the rind of two ten to twelve pound seedless watermelons. Ugh I am so frustrated!
- DAY ONE: Wash and carve watermelon and cut rind into one inch squares. Make sure you peel the rind carefully with a veggie peeler because there is nothing nastier than choking on an unpeeled piece of rind. Mix salt into the water in a large non-reactive pot and add the watermelon rind. Cover and let stand 24 hours.
- DAY TWO: Drain watermelon rind and rinse well. Wash the pot and add the watermelon rind and a gallon of filtered water and lots of ice, at least 4 cups and let stand for two hours. Drain again and pick out the ice. Return the watermelon rind to the pot and cover with boiling water and cook until tender enough to pierce with a wooden skewer, about ten to 12 minutes and then drain well. While the rind is draining wash the pot and prepare the syrup. Put the spices in a spice bag or tea infuser or else you will have to fish all of it out later on. In your rinsed pot, combine the vinegar, sugar, spice bag, juice and rind of the lemon and bring to a boil. Add the rind to the syrup and cook ON LOW until the rind is transparent. This can take a while so keep checking for that transparency. When the rind looks transparent put the lid on the pot and take off the heat. Don't touch it for 24 hours. If you like less spice you can remove the spice bag at this time. I leave it in for the full 24 hours.
- DAY THREE: Remove the pickles and let them drain back into the pot. Reserve the syrup and bring to a boil. Pack the pickles into (about) 6 sterile pint jars and pour the boiling syrup over the pickles, evenly between the six jars to about 1/4 inch from the top. Cap and adjust bands and process in a hot water bath for 5 minutes from the time the water returns to the boil. Ball Blue Book suggests ten minutes but my old recipe was 5 minutes. I think the 5 minute bath is a crispier pickle and I have to tell you I have never, in the past 35 years, had a jar explode in the pantry, but use the processing time you feel comfy with.
- DAY SIXTY: Pickles are ready. OK, I start eating them as soon as I hit day three -- So these pickles are made all summer long and enjoyed all year round.
- REALLY EASY METHOD: If you are not a canner you can cool the pickles on your counter and put the jars in your refrigerator and they will last one month.
Questions & Replies
-
A few questions: 1. 2- 10 to 12 lbs of skin peeled watermelon rinds and to make salt brine: do I add 2 TBS pickle salt with 1 gallon of water? 2. To make the syrup, I add no water? 2 cups of vinegar and other ingredients are not enough to cover the watermelon rinds when combined in the pot. 3. When I can it, it isn't enough syrup to cover the jar full of watermelon rinds. Can you give me little more details? Hard to understand what need to be done to make this. Thank you!
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Hello Zaars and Zaarinas!
Thank all of you who tried my 'memory' recipes and left such nice reviews and for taking such lovely pictures. I do appreciate your comments.
My pet peeves about cooking are recipe reviews where the reviewer says, "I made the recipe exactly as written EXCEPT yada yada yada" and I don't like suggestive names or titles such as, "Better Than Sex". I don't know why anyone would eat anything that is 'sinful' or 'decadent' since decadent is described as being decaying. Also, PAP-RI-KA only has 3 syllables. VINAIGRETTE is pronounced vin-a-grette, not vinager-ette. It's mas-car-pone not mars-ca-pone. And I don't like cutesy adult baby talk,,, or metro chic names like delish, nutrish, yummo, sammy, BAM! Oh well, I make as many, or more, faux pas as the next guy especially in ASL!
Things that crack me up are:
DH
Fred from youtube.com
Nick, my nephew
Fish and Poi song as performed by PoiBoi
My possum recipe per the song on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVvL4-srt6U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpbyM8k7e2Q wow this is good!
my Doggie
Little Yellow Petey Bird on youtube
My BFF's. all of them and there are so many!
and my little Sister Mary Beth. She has MS and Lupus and a great attitude.
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