Is your watermelon ripe? Check it with the ‘two-finger’ rule
So there you are, standing in front of the watermelon display. Which big one are you taking home? You don’t want a melon that tastes bland, dry and hard. Cutting open watermelons in the supermarket to check whether they’re ripe obviously isn’t an option either. So what do you do? Apply the ‘two-finger’ rule.
It’s super simple, and you’ll immediately know whether the melon can come home with you or not.
Ripe watermelon? Apply the ‘two-finger’ rule
The green stripes on its skin are a characteristic feature of a watermelon. To test whether your watermelon is properly ripe, measure the distance between these green stripes. You do this with your index and middle fingers. Place them next to each other in the space between two stripes. Do your fingers fit in between? Then the watermelon is ripe. A perfectly ripe watermelon has stripes that are just as wide as your index and middle fingers together. That’s how simple the ‘two-finger’ rule is!
Watermelons without stripes should be left on the shelf anyway. They were picked too early and definitely aren’t ripe yet.
A spot in the right place
There are also more tricks for picking out the perfect watermelon. The best tip besides the ‘two-finger’ rule? Check the yellow spot on the bottom of the watermelon. Yes, it’s supposed to be there, even though at first glance it might look like nothing more than a dirty mark. That yellow spot forms when the watermelon has been lying on the ground in that spot. As watermelons ripen, they become heavier. So heavy that they eventually touch the ground. The bigger and yellower the spot, the longer the watermelon has ripened. And that’s a good sign.
The tastiest watermelon recipes
What are you going to do with your ripe watermelon? Eat it, of course—duh—but do you already know how? I like to turn it into a salad, for example with mozzarella or feta and mint. You can also keep things a little less virtuous and make watermelon champagne mimosas or watermelon mojito popsicles. And what about this ‘tuna salad’ with watermelon? I think I’ll have turned into a watermelon myself by the end of summer…
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