Pickled Watermelon Rinds

I have seen this made a few times on cooking competitions, so when my wife bought a full watermelon last weekend I thought I would give it a try. I probably should have looked up some recipes first, rather than right now. ;-)

This is what was left after I sliced up a watermelon for us to eat later. Then I took my sharp knife and started slicing off pieces of the rind -- but I don't think I went deep enough. Everything I have read now says they're using almost exclusively the white part of the rinds. I used the more pinkish area that's a little bitter and you wouldn't normally eat.

So mine is really more like a watermelon-rind hybrid, rather than a purely watermelon rind. Live & learn, right? You may remember that the blog started with me experimenting with new recipes. I wanted to share my learning much like the move "Julie & Julia". (I'm only now realizing that I have been subconsciously copying her idea to blog about learning to cook.)

I made my own pickling brine using apple cider vinegar as the base. I like to use them when I pickle red onions because it's sweeter. I also added a bit of balsamic vinegar because I knew that paired well with watermelon. Then I added pickling salt, sugar, and distilled water. That's it. I have been reading that you could use cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, mustard, etc. I'll consider that for my next batch.

I poured the hot liquid over my sliced watermelon-rind pieces and let it set for a few minutes. They are sweet and bitter. It was a bit odd tasting it right away because they were warm. I put them in the refrigerator in this tupperware and now I have these cool, crisp, little pieces of briny watermelon-like fruit to eat. It's not bad at all. And now I want to try it again with exclusively the whites, and maybe a slightly different brine.