Choose brightly colored watermelons.
For many people, a crisp, ripe watermelon is the fruit that epitomizes summer. Watermelon selection may seem like a mysterious ritual because you often see potential buyers tapping or thumping the watermelon rind and listening for the sound that signals that particular watermelon is the best choice. In actuality, you can do a number of things instead to pick out the best watermelon for your family, not one of which involves thumping.
Instructions
1. Look for a brightly colored watermelon rind. This often indicates the watermelon hasn't been away from the patch for many days. Depending on the type of watermelon, the rind may be a light color. For traditional seeded watermelons, a dark green color often indicates the melon's ripeness.
2. Check the watermelon's ground spot. This is the yellowish or orange spot on the underside of the melon that indicates how long the melon sat in the field maturing. A green spot indicates the melon didn't ripen on the vine and may not be as sweet.
3. Choose a symmetrical watermelon. If the rind has an odd shape, this may indicate the melon lacked water at some point in its growing season. This may affect its juiciness. While the watermelon rind may have some scratches from transit that won't hurt its flavor, avoid melons with major flaws.
4. Pick up individual watermelons of a similar size to compare their weights. The heaviest melon is going to have the most juice. Watermelons are at least 92 percent water, so choose the heaviest melon you can for the juiciest selection.
5. Select a watermelon from an unrefrigerated crate rather than a refrigerated one to have more lycopene and carotenoid nutrients available. While you may refrigerate the melon when you cut it and prior to serving it, once you cut the melon its nutrient level begins to decrease.
Tags: watermelon rind, brightly colored, heaviest melon, indicates melon, often indicates
