Kiwano

Cucumis metuliferus · Melon

40 pairings

The kiwano, or horned melon, is the spiky golden-orange fruit of Cucumis metuliferus, an annual vine of the gourd family native to semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa. Its jewel-green interior is a seed-flecked jelly that tastes of cucumber, lime and faint banana.

Picking a good onedrag

Pale rind, rock hardDull, sunken, weeping

Full orangeJelly at its brightest lime and firmest — scoop it raw, seeds and all.Buy it

Rind colourEven golden-orange, spine tips green

In the handFirm all over, heavy for its size

Stem scarScar dry, corky and closed

SmellFaint cucumber when you scratch the rind

What to look for, from pale rind, rock hard to dull, sunken, weeping.

What one gives you

64%

Usable yield

209 g of jelly · rind off

327 g

Typical weight

one specimen

Keeping ittap a band

Never the fridge: below about 13 C the rind pits with dull opaque spots, and at 4 C nine fruit in ten spoiled inside five weeks while warm-kept fruit stayed sound.

Humidity

Dry room air

The waxy rind barely transpires - under 8% of its weight lost in two months on a shelf - so it wants no damp; humid cold is what rots it.

Airflow

Open shelf

Leave it out unwrapped and uncrowded: the fast rot reported in store came under humid conditions, and a bag round a whole fruit makes exactly that.

Colour answers to it, sweetness does not

A day of ethylene turns a pale rind orange within three days, where an untreated fruit takes two months - but it adds no sweetness, and the sugars rise either way.

Preparing