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Watermelon
Citrullus lanatus · Fruit
3 varieties40 pairings
Watermelon is the giant, sprawling-vine fruit of Citrullus lanatus, a member of the gourd family grown across the warm world for its crisp, intensely sweet, water-laden flesh. About 92% water, faintly fragrant and barely acidic, it is the archetypal summer fruit — eaten in dripping wedges, blended into agua fresca, salted, or cut into a melon-and-feta salad — and is botanically a berry, the giant fleshy pepo of a cucumber relative.
Picking a good onedrag
ImmatureMealy
Just matureCrisp, clean red and firm. The stage that cubes well — feta salads, skewers, grilling, anything that has to hold its shape.Buy it
Field spotCream, clearly marked
Rind & heftShine dulling, heavy in the hand
ThumpDeep hollow thud
Stem & tendrilTendril browning, stem drying
What to look for, from immature to mealy.
What one gives you
52%
Usable yield
4518 g flesh · rind, seeds out
8688 g
Typical weight
one specimen
Keeping ittap a band
Whole, it wants 10-15 C, not the fridge: a few days below 5 C pits the rind, fades the flesh and flattens flavour. Cut, it inverts: wrap, under 5 C.
Humidity
90%
Don't wash or mist it — damper air mostly feeds the rots. Film the cut face.
Airflow
Open, uncovered
Open air, stacked gently: rots enter through bruises and splits, not age. Cut: wrap.
Makes none of it, ruined by a little
Never ripens further off the vine, and a little ethylene from other fruit turns the flesh mealy and spongy — keep it clear of bananas, apples and cantaloupe.