Tip of the Week-How to tell if a Melon is ripe

Galia Melon

Tip of the Week-How to tell if a Melon is ripe

It isn't difficult to purchase a ripe melon when you know what to look for
Generally speaking I try to buy fruit several days in advance to give them
chance to ripen if need be. I use the same principle when buying for a restaurant. There is nothing worse than a “woody unripe melon” to give a bad first impression of a restaurant. Just like paying enough attention to the vegetables, a Head chef must pay serious attention to the ripeness of his fruit and vegetables and make seasonal adjustments. If your trimming the skin off you need to sometimes trim another 1/4 inch because the fruit right next to the skin can still be "woody" even though the rest of the fruit is ripe. I have sometimes seen well meaning chefs trying to be thrifty not trimming enough off the melon.

Shopping Tips
Of course finding a ripe or riper melon may be easier in late summer early autumn, but often melon is offered as a vegetarian alternative during the holiday season, so I thought you appreciate a few tips.

Look at the stem end to determine when it was harvested. If it was cut from the vine and has a long green stem, that means it was harvested early, so it is not vine ripened.* Most melons sold in the Uk are of course not vine ripen because of longer shipping distances from where was grown.
If the stem has dried up and fallen off or is loose enough to gently pull away from the melon, than it's probably ripe. I look for the ones that have a clean divot, where the stem used to be. Then I press on the divot to see if it yields a bit to the pressure, which is a good sign, and when most melons are fragrant, they’re ripe. Certain types of melon like Gallia melon have a strong more perfumed fragrance that most honeydew so generally it is easy to find a ripe Galia than Honeydew. For American readers Gallia melon is very similar in appearance to Cantaloupe melons, the both have “netted” skin.

Past their best
Don’t buy them if the melon has mold at the stem end and get soft patches, you may find they taste winey and are past their prime.

Seasonal Adjustments
During the summer months if I am serving melon, I serve it very chilled to refresh. However if I am serving melon during the holiday season I want it cool but not cold so the flavour comes through.

A Few Ideas
If you want to serve Parma ham with your melon don’t wrap it. This way if one or two of guests turn out to be vegetarian you haven’t got to lie through your teeth as you remove the ham behind the scenes. But equally importantly I want to be able to taste the wonderful contrast of these two very different ingredients. Make a dressing from simple sugar syrup then add fresh lime zest and juice…maybe a few seedless finely chopped birds-eye chilies.
Bring the components together at the last moment for best taste.
You can also try roasting the Parma ham to offer a contrast in textures.
Or if you prefer to keep the dish just fruit you could make a little fresh mint syrup and toss a few blackberries and raspberries into it.
Perhaps finely grate fresh ginger into some crème fraiche and add some ground cinnamon.

Interesting Facts
Melon is perhaps the most common fruit grown throughout the world.
Botanically it belongs the same family as cucumber, squash, pumpkins.
Honeydew is in fact the American name for the variety of melon, which has been grown for many years in southern France and Algeria. In China, honeydews are sometimes known as Wallace melons because they were introduced to China by Henry A. Wallace, Vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt. Various types of melon have been cultivated around the world for thousands of years, Water melon seeds were even found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen.