Pick a good watermelon: 5 great tricks for quickly spotting a perfect, sweet, and crisp watermelon each and every time.
Picking the Perfect Watermelon
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Nothing says warm weather like Watermelon and Corn on the Cob! I’ve already provided the most absolutely delicious grilled corn recipe, and now I will share with you my secrets for always picking the perfect watermelon!
Finding the perfect Watermelon…
Dear Reader, before I share with you my tricks for picking a fabulous melon each time, I have to share with you the story of the trouble I went through to get the melon for this post.
You see, when I went to the grocery store to get this watermelon, I went in through the entrance on the left of the store. There was the sweetest old man working there as a greeter at the door. Directly behind this sweet man was the bins of watermelon.
When the older gentleman saw I was looking through the bin of watermelons, he quickly rushed over and offered me a melon he was sure would be a good one because it was VERY large. He was so excited to be presenting the watermelon to me that I felt obligated to accept it.
I knew it wasn’t a good one though, so I pretended like I needed a second melon and went to grab this one you see featured in my pictures.
That sweet old man then did the gentlemanly thing and reached in the bin to get the melon for me. It really was sweet of him, however he grabbed the wrong melon. The one he gave me this time had no field spot at all. DEFINITELY not what I was looking for.
I thanked the man and decided to go do the rest of my shopping and keep checking back to see if he had left his post.
He did not leave his post. I kept pretending I needed even more watermelons while always attempting to get the perfect watermelon I had already spotted but was too short to reach. (Curse you short genes!!!)
A walk in the rain…
Eventually I got the melon I had been going for. By this point I had a total of 4 melons in my cart and one in my arms. I thanked my friendly helper and then walked to the front entrance watermelon bins on the whole other side of the store. After placing four of my five melons in those bins, I then purchased my groceries and went to leave.
Now I had a problem: I couldn’t just go thorough the door closest to my car because that’s where my friendly neighborhood watermelon picker was greeting people. So I had to walk out the opposite side of the store and then walk through the parking lot.
Really not a big deal. Until…
Until that older gentleman came out into the parking lot to help a lady load her groceries. At which point I had to make a detour to the back of the parking lot in order to avoid walking past him and letting him see my cart that was suspiciously low on watermelons.
As I did my large lap around the parking lot I had a thought that I highly suggest you NEVER have if you find yourself in my same situation: I thought “Well, at least it wont get any worse. Haha!
Yep, you guessed it: suddenly it started to rain. Big rain. Like the kind you see in movies like “The Notebook”. Out of nowhere and very wet (as opposed to dry rain… Hahaha!).
How long until a watermelon goes bad
I just started laughing and decided to dance in the parking lot with my watermelon. At which point I dropped the darn thing.
Do NOT drop your watermelon or you need to cut it within 24 hours because all the juices will start to pool around the inner-bruised area.
On the upside: it tasted delicious and that old man hopefully felt very good about himself for helping me find 5 “perfect” watermelons!
How to tell when a watermelon is ripe
The first thing to look for is a creamy yellow spot, called the field spot, on the melon.
The field spot is where the watermelon was resting on the ground. Ripe sweet watermelons have a creamy yellow spot. If there is no spot at all; avoid that watermelon at all costs because you’ll be getting one that isn’t very sweet.
How to pick a good watermelon at the grocery store
Look for a medium sized more rounded than elongated watermelon.
If the melon is too small then it wasn’t yet ripe enough when it was picked. If you choose a watermelon that is very large, it is likely to be mushy from becoming overly ripe.
The round melons tend to be more sweet and crisp in comparison to the elongated melons; which tend to be more watery and lacking in sweet flavor.
Also, while going with the round melon; try to go for a watermelon that isn’t all funky in shape. As awesome as those ones look, they very rarely taste delicious in all their areas. Uniformity is key.
How to pick a sweet watermelon
You know how sometimes a watermelon has those brown looking webs and spots? That is from bees that pollinating the melon while in it’s flowering stage.
My mom always called the spots “bee stings”. They aren’t actually bee stings, but they are because of bees, and the more of that webbing and pollination spotting; the sweeter the melon.
How to choose a watermelon by tapping
My mom always taught me to listen for a hollow-ish sound.
I say hollow *ish* because you don’t want the melon to sound too hollow. you are listening to hear if the melon is crisp inside there, or mush and juice. However, if it is too “hollowish”, then it’s be the melon that is disintegrating when you cut it into chunks.
Oftentimes the watermelon won’t have a tail at all. However if it does have one, then be sure to examine it. A dried out tail means that the watermelon is ripe. If the tail is still “green” though; it was picked too soon.
Color of a ripe watermelon
Look for a melon that is slightly dull green in color. The brighter the green of the melon; the less-ripe that the melon was. The darker and duller green of the melon; the more ripe. Don’t go overripe.
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 perfect Watermelon!
Instructions
- -Medium-sized Watermelon that is ROUND
- -Creamy Yellow Spot
- -Bee Pollination Spots and Webbing
- -Hollow Thumping Sound
- -Dull Happy Green Color
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