Pickled Watermelon
When I was little, I would always look forward to the holidays and going over to my grandmother’s house. Not just for the obvious reasons, but because she used to make her own pickles (and I LOVE pickles!), pickled tomatoes and pickled watermelon! That’s right, pickled watermelon! Now I know that it is fairly common to pickle watermelon rind, but this is the “meat” along with the rind. Sounds gross I know, but if you like pickles, especially half sour pickles, it is just GREAT!
Before my grandmother died around ten years ago, she made sure she gave all of her recipes to my mother, aunt and wife. The problem was, she didn’t have ALL of her recipes written down and pickled watermelon was one of those recipes. 🙁
In my house, my wife and I share cooking duties because, if I may say so myself, we are both pretty darn good cooks. I handle most of the daily cooking and ALL grilling while she takes care of baking, soups and stews (which I am REALLY bad at all of them, LOL). I am GREAT with throwing things together and having them taste good. I also make my own marinades and salad dressings so how hard can pickled watermelon be, right?!?
I’ve been searching the internet for pickled watermelon recipes for years now and recently came across two. With a little help from my mom, we were able to piece together what we THINK my grandmother did to make her pickle brine, especially the brine for the pickled watermelon. Well… I tried it yesterday!
It has to ferment for just about a week but if it turns out tasting right, I’ll post how I made it so that others can try it. If not, it is back to the drawing board and won’t give up until I get it right!
I’ll let you know how it goes. 🙂
P.S. – I wanted to thank an old high school friend Tara Frey for giving me a shout out in her blog. If you are into crafts, (interior) design, photography or just a good read, please check out her blog. Also, she has a book coming out soon so I’ll give a plug for that too!
Hi jason,
Found your site through Tara’s blog. I too am a graphic designer and enjoy looking at other people’s work, yours was no exception. I like your style. Keep up the great work!
Never heard of picked watermelon before, but did find this http://gourmettraveller.com.au/sticky_pork_watermelon_pickle_and_herb_salad.htm
Is that any help or is it similar to what you had?
Glad you found me and thanks so much for the link Annette! Unfortunately that isn’t it but thanks again for trying to help.
As an update, one jar went into the refrigerator today after tasting one last night. I’ll know better once it is cold but I think I did it. Maybe I’ll include some pics with my next post, LOL.
Since I haven’t done a new blog about the pickled watermelon, I just wanted to give an update…
I made two batches, one came out “ok” and the other was pretty bad. I’m going to try it again soon though!