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Preparing
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Crenshaw melon
Cucumis melo · Melon
40 pairings
The Crenshaw is a large, pear-shaped hybrid melon — a cross of a casaba-type winter melon with a sweet, orange-fleshed cantaloupe — distinguished by its smooth, ribbed green-to-golden rind and exceptionally fragrant, juicy salmon-pink flesh. Among the sweetest and most aromatic of the smooth melons, it is eaten chilled in wedges, cubed into fruit salad, and paired with cured ham.
Picking a good onedrag
Dark green, hard, scentlessAll yellow, slack, boozy
Half goldHalf the rind turned, blossom end springy. Cuts into clean wedges, cubes and balls - the cured-ham stage.Buy it
Rind colourAbout half of it turned to gold
Blossom endSprings back under the thumb
Cut stem scarStub dry, scar corked over
Smell at the blossom endFaint sweet-spicy note right up close
What to look for, from dark green, hard, scentless to all yellow, slack, boozy.
What one gives you
46%
Usable yield
rind and seeds out · about honeydew's share
Keeping ittap a band
Below 7 C the rind pits and decay starts at the surface, and it stops colouring for good - a cool larder, not the fridge. A fully ripe one takes cold better, for days not weeks.
Humidity
90-95%
Damp air. That smooth rind is thin and loses water fast: a week in a dry warm room dulls it to a wrinkled yellow and costs real weight.
Airflow
Open, uncovered
Stand it uncovered with air all round, never stacked deep and never dropped. Every scuff on that thin rind is where water-soaking and rot begin. Wrap it only once cut.
Hurried by it, makes almost none
It gives off very little itself, so it will not spoil the leaves beside it - but ethylene off apples and bananas softens it fast, and softer is not sweeter.