I am will try and limit it, but tis a long winded tale to tell.
Last weekend we received a HUGE watermelon and was told it was a yellow-meated. Well in South Louisiana watermelons due to the water in the soil don't do good. Further north its ok. Having lived in West Texas I know what a good watermelon is, about a dollar a piece....LOL
Imagine my surprise when I split open this melon to clean, cut, and get it in the reefer and it was as pretty a melon as I have seen. Its heart was huge and it was a perfect picking. OMG its was great! No picture of the melon but.............
I got two of these, my dressing-makin bowls that are the biggest ones in the house and are cut down low riders for the reefer. Old man in West Texas taught me about cutting and cleaning a melon instead of the mess of all the slicing and juice dripping off the melon that too up so much room of the reefer.
I bagged all the rind and put out for the trash man. Then the light comes on over my head, it sometimes flashes neon but that's a only for world changing thoughts.
WATERMELON RIND PICKLES!!!!
I run out and bring my trash back in....ROFLMAO ..... I pull out the bag of rinds (they were clean and in a separate bag), and surveyed the rinds. Sorry forgot the picture but they were as good as the watermelon !!
I cleaned 'em, skinned 'em, chopped 'em, and put them in a brine. No I am not going to smoke 'em. They sat and brined overnight.
This morning, I washed and rinsed, and thought it wise at the time to check and see if I had everything needed to do this. Good..... it was close but I could make it.
I got out some jars, cleaned and sanitized them, checked for lids and bands. I always wondered about those sanitized wraps they used to put on the toilet's in the hotels. You know the big paper band that said "Sanitized for your Protection". Did they think we were gonna eat on the toilet?
Boil the jars.........
Pare-boil the rind, I don't know why, next time I will skip this step.
While the rinds are in the hot tub, I made the syrup. This stuff was excellent!! Homemade none of that pickling spice stuff.......
After the rinds were pare-boiled and drained and the syrup had cooked about 15 mins. I dumped the rinds back into the syrup and returned it all to a boil until the rinds were translucent.
Hot filled the sanitized jars, and processed for 10 mins.
No old maids, every lid popped!
I had some of that good packing gravy left.... what to do.
I added a bit more sugar and a bit of water, no since losing all that good twang!
What to do....... Well I could use it to sweeten those peaches and nectarines that are about macerated! Spicy Peach Liqueur? Oh yeah......
But first.......for now a big pot of fresh made tea from spring water!
That's it a fresh pot of sweet tea, some spiced simple syrup for the liqueurs, and 5 jars of pickled watermelon rinds. I hope they are good!!
Its that time of the year, and I thank you for looking in on my Wednesday adventure!
Last weekend we received a HUGE watermelon and was told it was a yellow-meated. Well in South Louisiana watermelons due to the water in the soil don't do good. Further north its ok. Having lived in West Texas I know what a good watermelon is, about a dollar a piece....LOL
Imagine my surprise when I split open this melon to clean, cut, and get it in the reefer and it was as pretty a melon as I have seen. Its heart was huge and it was a perfect picking. OMG its was great! No picture of the melon but.............
I got two of these, my dressing-makin bowls that are the biggest ones in the house and are cut down low riders for the reefer. Old man in West Texas taught me about cutting and cleaning a melon instead of the mess of all the slicing and juice dripping off the melon that too up so much room of the reefer.
I bagged all the rind and put out for the trash man. Then the light comes on over my head, it sometimes flashes neon but that's a only for world changing thoughts.
WATERMELON RIND PICKLES!!!!
I run out and bring my trash back in....ROFLMAO ..... I pull out the bag of rinds (they were clean and in a separate bag), and surveyed the rinds. Sorry forgot the picture but they were as good as the watermelon !!
I cleaned 'em, skinned 'em, chopped 'em, and put them in a brine. No I am not going to smoke 'em. They sat and brined overnight.
This morning, I washed and rinsed, and thought it wise at the time to check and see if I had everything needed to do this. Good..... it was close but I could make it.
I got out some jars, cleaned and sanitized them, checked for lids and bands. I always wondered about those sanitized wraps they used to put on the toilet's in the hotels. You know the big paper band that said "Sanitized for your Protection". Did they think we were gonna eat on the toilet?
Boil the jars.........
Pare-boil the rind, I don't know why, next time I will skip this step.
While the rinds are in the hot tub, I made the syrup. This stuff was excellent!! Homemade none of that pickling spice stuff.......
After the rinds were pare-boiled and drained and the syrup had cooked about 15 mins. I dumped the rinds back into the syrup and returned it all to a boil until the rinds were translucent.
Hot filled the sanitized jars, and processed for 10 mins.
No old maids, every lid popped!
I had some of that good packing gravy left.... what to do.
I added a bit more sugar and a bit of water, no since losing all that good twang!
What to do....... Well I could use it to sweeten those peaches and nectarines that are about macerated! Spicy Peach Liqueur? Oh yeah......
But first.......for now a big pot of fresh made tea from spring water!
That's it a fresh pot of sweet tea, some spiced simple syrup for the liqueurs, and 5 jars of pickled watermelon rinds. I hope they are good!!
Its that time of the year, and I thank you for looking in on my Wednesday adventure!
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