Watermelon Rind: A Guest Post
This is a post from Tammie Darden, who I am proud to call friend. She's an inspiration to me: she cooks, cans, gardens, and like I have been working at becoming, she's a scientist. When I saw her talking about a paper on the use of watermelon rind, I asked if she would be willing to write a guest post, and she was! This is great, and I am really looking forward to trying some watermelon rind recipes myself.
Watermelon Rind
I come from a long line of farmers and canners. I grew up on tales of the great depression and I think that fueled my passion for more nutrition, less waste. As a scientist I not only look at recipes, but at research, for inspiration in my canning.
If you live in the South you probably know that watermelon rinds are edible. It always hurts me to throw away the rind it seems like such a waste, but I don’t care for pickled watermelon rinds and preserves of any kind are a lot of hard work.
It turns out that watermelon rind is very good for you. So good that there is research being done on ways that it can be incorporated into other foods like flour and jams. In flour it raises the nutritional value and increases shelf life of the flour. In jams it has been looked at as an addition and on its own in an effort to make a nutritional food product from something formerly seen as a waste item. The jam may actually be very beneficial for people with certain heart conditions.
This week I did indeed have a watermelon that needed to have something done with it. I bought it for a family gathering but there was so much food it never got cut. Once cut the clock ticks at a rapid pace and it has to be used up quickly.
We ate the juicy sweet flesh as snacks and sides for a couple of days. I used almost half to make a fairly standard watermelon/peach jamelly, a fusion of jam and jelly that I make from fruit purees. Then there I had it, the rind, the left over goodness that begged to be used. For at least part of the rind I had in mind a marmalade, so I dove in to do my research.
I ended up using a couple of resources to come up with my own recipe for it. Since watermelon rind does not have much flavor on its own I incorporated it into a low sugar orange marmalade. I was very enchanted with the end product it was much lighter than a traditional marmalade without the cloying sweetness I associate with them.
Orange Marmalade with Watermelon Rind
5 medium to large oranges flesh and rind
1 medium to large lemon flesh and rind
2 cups watermelon rind peeled and chopped small, no pink
2 cups of water
1/8 tsp baking soda
4 cups of sugar with ¼ cup set aside
1 pkg of Sure Jell Low Sugar Pectin (mix in with the ¼ cup of sugar)
Remove the colored part of the peels of the citrus. Keep a thin amount of the white part on the peels; this is where most of the pectin is. Chop the peels into very small pieces.
Add the citrus peels, the WMR, the water and the baking soda to an instant pot (you can cook it in a regular pot to tenderness if you want to) Cook for 10 minutes on the Meat/Stew setting.
While the peels are cooking remove the citrus flesh from the remaining white part of the peel and chop into chunks. Add to the ingredients in the instant pot when it is done and simmer 10 minutes stirring often.
Bring the mixture to a boil and add the sugar/pectin mixture. Add slowly while stirring with a whisk to reduce clumping.
Let the mixture come to a full rolling boil and add the rest of the sugar again stirring in with a whisk.
After adding the rest of the sugar return it to a rolling boil and allow it to boil for one minute. Turn off heat and ladle into clean half pint jars. Put on clean lids and rings and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. It can take up to two weeks to jell so don’t despair if it does not set over night. About 7 half pints.
While my research did not turn up a the exact marmalade I wanted it did turn up a couple of fascinating research papers on utilizing watermelon rind, one of which I used as a starting point to make a jamelly that contained only watermelon rind as it’s fruit. The paper dealt with using watermelon rind in apple butter. It added fiber, vitamins, and an amino acid called Citrulline. This is converted in the body to something vital to our health an amino acid called arginine. Wow! How could I not experiment with that? It turns out that my experiment was very tasty and almost free food. The fruit is almost always the most expensive part of jams and I got seven half pints for something the usually goes to the compost for lack of an easy way (yes easy is important to me my time is valuable too) to do something with it.
Spiced Watermelon Rind Jamelly
800 grams watermelon rind peeled and chunked, no pink
2 cups of water
4 cups of sugar with ¼ cup set aside
1 pkg of Sure Jell Low Sugar Pectin (mix in with the ¼ cup of sugar)
1.5 tsp citric acid (add to the larger portion of sugar)
1 tbsp. spice blend like apple pie, pumpkin pie, or your own blend (add to the larger portion of sugar)
Add the WMR and the water an instant pot (you can cook it in a regular pot to tenderness if you want to) Cook for 15 minutes on the Meat/Stew setting.
When the WMR is done use an immersion blender or a counter top blender to make it into a puree.
Bring the mixture to a boil and add the sugar/pectin mixture. Add slowly while stirring with a whisk to reduce clumping.
Let the mixture come to a full rolling boil and add the rest of the sugar(containing the citric acid and spices) again stirring in with a whisk.
After adding the rest of the sugar return it to a rolling boil and allow it to boil for one minute. Turn off heat and ladle into clean half pint jars. Put on clean lids and rings and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. About 7 half pints
Cooking is science; take a turn on the research side, you might be surprised with what you find.
Sources:
Sure Jell Low Sugar Pectin insert.
Note: Header image is not watermelon rind, but Cedar's variants on strawberry rhubarb jam from a few years back. This means I must make some 'rind marmelade, so I can photograph it!