Casaba melon

Cucumis melo · Melon

40 pairings

The casaba is a large, smooth-fleshed winter melon, the wrinkled, golden-rinded fruit of the trailing gourd vine Cucumis melo (Inodorus group). It is one of the mildest of the sweet melons — pale, juicy, faintly cucumber-fresh and almost odourless — eaten chilled in wedges, balled into fruit salad, and prized as a long-keeping melon that holds for weeks after harvest.

Picking a good onedrag

Green-tinged, hard all throughSlack, pitted, weeping

Golden and firmRind yellow over most of it, a little green still in the creases; blossom end barely giving. Cubes and balls cleanly — fruit salad, skewers, wedges with cured ham.Buy it

Rind colourYellow over most of it, green in the creases

Blossom endSprings back under the thumb

Cut stem endStub dried pale, scar flat and clean

SmellNothing but a cool cucumber trace

What to look for, from green-tinged, hard all through to slack, pitted, weeping.

What one gives you

60%

Usable yield

1,640 g flesh · rind and seeds out

2733 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Keeping ittap a band

Below 7 °C the rind pits, surface decay sets in and it stops ripening — a cool larder, not the fridge. A ripe one takes a few cold days; once cut it must be refrigerated.

Humidity

90–95%

That figure is a cold room's. The hard waxy rind holds water well, so a whole melon needs no bag, but weeks of dry air dull it and shrivel the blossom end first.

Airflow

Open, uncovered

Stand it uncovered with air all round and never stack them deep — scuffs and bruises are where water-soaking and rot begin. Wrap it only once it is cut.

Makes almost none, but answers to it

It gives off very little, so unlike a cantaloupe it will not hurry its neighbours along. Ethylene from apples or bananas beside it softens it faster, but never sweetens it.

Preparing