STUPID easy pickled watermelon rinds

[Trioxin]

I don't know about you guys, but summer means watermelon to me. I absolutely LOVE them. I haven't gotten to the point (yet) were I can grow them myself, so I buy a $5 melon at the store like everyone else. The only problem is when I'm done knocking out a melon; I have a shit load of material left over in the form of the rind. Of course I can throw it in my compost and be rid of it, but why throw away edibles when you don't have to. My pop is always talking about pickled watermelon rinds, so I decided to make his advice and make some. They came out great. They are positively delicious and STUPID easy to make. Here is how I made them.


I peeled the rind first. I just used a veggie peeler for this. Just peeled off al the green stuff.


I sliced them up into pieces that would fit into a quart jar. I rinsed them with cold water and shoved them in the jars.
BTW I just bought a dozen of these canning jars at the megloMart for $8.
I cleaned the rim of the jars off really well so the seal would take. CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN.
I then took a saucepan, mixed up a water/vinegar solution, and added a shit load of sugar and some salt.
I didn't have a recipe, but you could EASILY find one.
Once the solution was really hot, I poured the juice in the jars and filled them about an inch from the top of the jar.


The recipe I found on the web said to boil for 15 minutes to seal. I did that in a big stockpot I had.
15 minutes, no cheating.


After the 15 minutes, I lifted the jars out, put them on a towel and let sit for 24 hours to cool.
In the morning I checked the seal. Looked great. I put them under the sink for future eating.
After a week I had to crack one open to taste them. They are f*ckin great! I love the spicy stuff, so
I made a few jars with Serrano peppers added, just threw them in the jars with the rinds. They were HOT and TASTEY.

If you have been thinking about doing some pickling, DO IT. It is way easy and yields a great product.
I have since made pickles using the very same technique. I made dill, sweet, sweet hot, pickled hot onions with raisins
(sound gross, but with a cold beer...holy shit) and I plan on pickling more as the garden spits forth its bounty.

You gotta try this.

[zephyrkyuubi]

that looks amazingly delicious!
Now i just need to learn how to pickle things.

[Jaz]

That looks great, i'll have to try it one of these days

[TravisM.1]

Whats the consistency like? Similar to a firm canteloupe?

[resurgam]

Wow, thanks... my melon patch is putting on Watermelons faster than I can pick them right now and that's definitely something I should be doing. Thanks again!

[Kathy in FL]

Wow, thanks... my melon patch is putting on Watermelons faster than I can pick them right now and that's definitely something I should be doing. Thanks again!

Watermelon preserves are pretty good as well.

[LittleTeapot]

Very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to post this.

[Slugg]

i am gona make watermelon rind preserves first, then pickled ill try. im a fan of spicy foods so ill try the spicy one.

good post worth the read

[NapTime]

Cool post!

My friend let me try his (store bought) pickled asparagus and pickled green beans. They were pretty nice, and mostly just tasted like pickles, so I supposed you could pickle most anything, but I never guessed you could pickle rinds. This is awesome.

[Gunny]

I never thought the rinds were edible. Neat post

[stillborn]

Ok man, curiosity got the best of me here. I tried my hand at pickling here. I did some pickled watermelon rinds, and some pickled eggs. I have never tried either and I am almost positive that I wont like either... but just wanted to see if I could do it. Anyway.. Ill let you know in a few weeks I guess.

[mantis]

I too am a watermelon fiend and I could probably amass enough rinds to make quite a few jars full in no time at all. I'll have to give it a shot.

[airexurb]

Ok man, curiosity got the best of me here. I tried my hand at pickling here. I did some pickled watermelon rinds, and some pickled eggs. I have never tried either and I am almost positive that I wont like either... but just wanted to see if I could do it. Anyway.. Ill let you know in a few weeks I guess.

me too. I'm gonna have to try it, just to see if it works.

[stillborn]

Well I used one of those small watermelons that are round. It had enough rind to fill one quart mason jar. So you get more than you think out of it.

[Resolute]

I also had no clue you could pickle watermelon rind... and Kathy, I never even thought of watermelon preserves! They don't have too much water to make preserves?

Is anyone here allergic to watermelon? I'm wondering if the boiling in the canning process changes some of the proteins in the fruit so my mouth won't itch when I eat it.

[dukman]

I don't really care for watermelons themselves, but someday I ought to try this. Now where is the recipe for the Watermelon Wine?

[milesdzyn]

Wow, thanks... my melon patch is putting on Watermelons faster than I can pick them right now and that's definitely something I should be doing. Thanks again!

Another thing to do if you can't keep up with eating them is to dry/dehydrate the watermelon, red portion only, cut into pie slice shapes about 1/2 inch thick. You'll get best results with a commercial dehydrator, but you could do it in the sun with a solar dehydrator as well.

It comes out slightly chewy like a soft candy and is sweeter due to the concentration of the sugars. Store in a zip bag in the fridge or vac-seal and freeze them.

Miles

[ZombieGranny]

Not enough to pickle, or have more than you need? Dice it up and put in the freezer. Good for mock water chestnuts in stir fry.

[tacberry]

Here's a good pickeling link:

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalo ... pnw355.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Kathy in FL]

I just made some watermelon preserves. Here's the recipe I used:

2 pounds watermelon
3 cups white sugar
3 lemons - rinsed, sliced and seeded

Remove the green rind of the melon, and dice the white part into small cubes, leaving the red flesh mostly intact. Remove seeds. In a heavy stockpot, combine 4 cups of the prepared watermelon, sugar and lemons. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and let the mixture boil slowly for 2 hours (more or less depending on water content of fruit), stirring occasionally. The temperature of the mixture should be at 220 degrees F (105 degrees C) so the jam will set. Transfer the preserves to hot sterile jars, and seal. Check the seals after a few hours. Process any unsealed jars in a water bath. Refrigerate preserves after seal is broken.

[ZMace]

I'm going to have to try this, both preserves and pickles.

[vyadmirer]

This is probably why I'll die in the PAW. No pickled watermelon rinds for me.