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Honeydew melon
Cucumis melo · Melon
40 pairings
Honeydew is a sweet, smooth-skinned winter melon, the creamy-rinded fruit of the trailing gourd vine Cucumis melo (Inodorus group). It is milder, sweeter and far less musky than its netted cousin cantaloupe — pale, juicy and clean-tasting — and is eaten chilled in wedges, balled into fruit salad, blended into agua fresca, and, most famously, draped in thin slices of cured ham.
Picking a good onedrag
Hard, green, still fuzzySlack, pitted, weeping
Firm creamCubes and balls cleanly - fruit salad, skewers, wedges with cured ham.Buy it
Rind colourCream with a light green tinge
The surfaceSmooth and dry, no tack to it
The two endsBlossom end just yields, scar clean
Smell at the blossom endClean, cucumber-green, very light
What to look for, from hard, green, still fuzzy to slack, pitted, weeping.
What one gives you
46%
Usable yield
1,000 g flesh · rind and seeds out
2174 g
Typical weight
one specimen
Keeping ittap a band
Below 7 °C the rind pits and stains reddish-tan and it stops ripening — a cool larder, not the fridge. A ripe melon takes the cold better: a few days, no more.
Humidity
90-95%
The waxy rind holds water better than most fruit, so it needs no bag; weeks in dry air cost weight and the blossom end shrivels first.
Airflow
Open, uncovered
Stand it uncovered with air all round and never stack them deep — a scuff or a bruise is where water-soaking and rot start. Wrap it only once cut.
Ripens the fruit beside it
It gives off enough to hurry its neighbours along — keep it clear of cucumbers, leaves and unripe avocados. Ethylene coming the other way only ripens it.