Watermelon Preserves

Followed to the T….but it candied. Tastes good, tho.

I would suggest throwing the melon and lemon into the blender to liquefy it prior to cooking? Maybe that would have helped. I ended up with two pint jars of thick weird textured product. I added ginger for flavor that did make it taste better, but still weirdest creation I ever made. I would not recommend it.

I used my electric pressure cooker (2 hours on stew (I checked the temp after the first cycle 220 exactly) to cook the melon and lemon and I used darker natural sugar. I’ve heard the smell is meh they are right but tastes great! Next time I’ll add fresh mint as well.

Thinking of trying it with strawberries in it too.

Please forgive, I haven’t made this yet. Dad was the expert on tasting watermelon rind preserves: his sister Orene always won the blue ribbon, ergo his opinion was accurate. Pappy (granddad, a farmer) was famous for the best watermelons in New Albany Mississippi area. Dad: Rind has to be thick but tender with no green left on – green parts cook up tasteless and leathery. Which is extremely hard to find because those traits mean melons don’t ship well (break easily) and were bred out of fruit in commerce now. Pappy’s melons were so intensely flavored you’d dream of them all winter! Their rinds trimmed of all green and pink were over 1″ thick and snow white. Today rinds are thin, tough as nails, greenish. Farmers tell me to hunt out seeded watermelons, especially heirloom types, which are the sweetest and best tasting anyway. Farmers have to grow some to pollinate seedless ones. Also, Dad said lemon spoils the flavor completely. Orene didn’t use it. The flavor should be reminiscent of citron. Factoid: a white meat watermelon was grown in the south just for it’s rind which was candied and used as a substitute for more expensive citron. Dad passed 1 year ago, age 96.

Did not set, stayed syrup. Fruit flavor did not come through, I only taste a sweet/slightly burnt taste. Maybe try another recipe that doesn’t cook the fruit so long, and uses pectin.

The watermelon tasted like burnt squash after being cooked. (it wasn’t actually burned) . The added lemon and sugar did little to flavor it. I would add a flavored gelatin to boost the flavor and add a little thickness to the gel. I would also like to point out that different watermelons have different water contents and that one needs to watch the mixture carefully to avoid under or over boiling it. My mixture reached jelly stage at one hour 10 minutes.

My watermelon stayed in chunks that are pretty solid and don’t spread like preserves should. I’d suggest finely dicing or pureeing before cooking. I used two lemons and the whole recipe got quite bitter from the rinds – next time I will only use lemon juice and zest. Otherwise, the jam set pretty well after two hours on a low-ish boil. Other reviews say to boil only 1 hour but mine was still soupy liquid at that point. Overall, I’m glad it worked, but I’m not exactly looking forward to eating all this chunky, bitter preserve.

Is definitely more marmalade like than a preserve. I found previous reviews very helpful. We halved the lemon as suggested and added 2 small velencia oranges with rinds. Leave uncovered during simmer to reduce until desired thickness. Our first batch produced 3 half pints. The fruit did not break down and the final product is very chunky with bits of candied watermelon among the rind pieces. Overall, very good but the recipe is missing many important elements and hints. Thank u previous reviewers, very helpful.

Great recipe but I made a few adaptions based on prior reviews. I used about 2.5 lbs of watermelon rind ( was about 1 1/4 of a small sugar baby watermelon), 4.5 cups of sugar, 2 navel oranges thinly sliced on a mandolin( entire orange added), 1/4 cup lemon juice, 2 tsp powered ginger and 1 cup of watermelon juice ( I blended some watermelon pink flesh and strained through a sieve reserving 1 cup of liquid). I brought it to a slow boil with lid on to prevent the preserve from developing crystals later and cooked it for about 2 hours until it had reduced to about 1/2 stirring about every 15 minutes until it was thick and syrupy and did not run after being placed on a cold plate after about a minute ( did not use a thermometer). Then processed in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. It came out delicious like a marmalade. With the adaptions I made 5 1/2 pints. Plan to make more!

Too much lemon.

i agree there’s too many lemons. my grandmother was famous for her watermelon preserves, and made it almost exactly the same, but with only one lemon, and about 1/2 tsp of cloves. as kids, we couldn’t wait to get to mawmaw gussie’s house for our treat of fresh biscuits, watermelon preserves, and cafe au lait! she lived in lafayette, louisiana, btw…

Just finished making these. Got five half pints. They look beautiful so far and they are all sitting except for one that is in the fridge for us to try tonight. I tried a little from the pot and it was delish. I followed the recommendation to use lemon and orange and can’t wait to try this on some toast. Does anyone on here have a recommendation on where to store it and for how long? Did anyone leave it a while before opening the jar? I haven’t canned in a while so I was hoping to get some advice.

This did not end up tasting at all watermelon-y to us, just very strongly lemon flavored. I love the idea, but in reality, it was a big disappointment to my family. If you like lemon a lot, you might want to give it a try, but if you are looking for a melon flavored preserve, this probably is not the recipe for you.

This made 2-1/2 pints for me. They set like preserves should…not too thick, more like a thick pancake syrup perhaps. The flavor is great and my dad liked them. Of course, so far, everyone has turned a nose up at the thought of them…but that makes more for me!!! Was my very first time making these….easy to do. I am making a 2nd batch of a different recipe to compare…though the other didn’t mention leaving any of the flesh part of the melon, so I didn’t. will have to see which batch I prefer. So far it is this one…simply for ease and least ingredients. Now to compare flavors!

With adjustment for cooking only 1 hour (even at high elevation, 7200 ft.), this came out just fine. Doesn’t taste a lot like watermelon – more like citrus “marmelade”; but that could be because the watermelon I used wasn’t that good to begin with – which is why I used it! As recipe is written, it only made a little more than 3 half-pints. I made the first batch with 2 lemons, 1 orange. I’m now cooking a 2nd batch, which I doubled, using 1 grapefruit, 2 oranges and 2 lemons. I ran all the citrus through the food processor using the grating attachment. Seeds, membranes mostly stayed above the grater; but additional seeds and membranes can be easily picked out of the pot while cooking.

This is a good recipe for a different kind of preserve. It is beautiful to look at. I made a few changes though, and would make a few more the next time I make it. First, I used one orange and one lemon. Second, I only simmered for one hour and it was perfect. It set up beautifully. It has a good flavor but it is really more of a marmalade. The other thing is that when I was through simmering, the lemon and orange were still pretty big so I took my kitchen shears and cut through the mixture until the peel was nice size; I will do this before the simmering next time. Other than that, if you are looking for a “different” recipe, then you should definitely try this one!

I think this recipe is wrong – it seems as though the mixture should boil for only 1 hour. I followed the directions to a T and after 2 hours the mixture was very burned. I think with only 1 hour of boil time it would be perfect. May try again!