To choose the best honeydew melon, consider its ripeness by examining its size, smell, color, texture, and sound. A ripe honeydew should be spherical, heavy, have a creamy yellow rind, bright green flesh, a smooth surface, and a sweet scent. It should also make a deep sound when knocked and a soft rattling sound when shaken.
Choosing the best honeydew melon is a matter of determining the ripeness of the melon. A fully ripe honeydew ranges from 6 to 10 inches (about 15 to 25 centimeters) in diameter. Because of the breadth of this range, size doesn’t necessarily indicate how ripe the melon is. The consumer must take into consideration other factors, including smell, sound, color and texture, in order to make the best possible selection.
A good honeydew melon is relatively spherical in shape, and consumers should avoid melons that are irregularly shaped or deformed. The melon should also feel heavy. The largest honeydews can weigh around 5 pounds (about 2.3 kilograms). A melon that seems too light is not ripe.
One of the easiest ways to check the ripeness of a honeydew melon is to examine its color. The inside flesh of a honeydew should be a bright, vibrant green, but most consumers don’t have the opportunity to examine the color of the insides before purchasing. Instead, consumers should look for melons with an outer rind that looks creamy yellow. Green rinds indicate that the melon is still unripe.
Some melons have a small, flat spot that appears lighter in color than the rest of the melon. This is usually not a cause for concern. Conversely, this patch simply suggests that the honeydew ripened while it was on the vine. Ripe melons flatten under their own weight, and a pale spot often develops where the heavy, ripe melon used to sit in the ground.
Texture is another important factor to take into consideration. A ripe honeydew melon has a smooth, waxy surface. The melons should also be firm, but not too hard. A melon without “give” is not ripe, but a soft melon is overripe. However, the bottom end of a honeydew melon, opposite the stem end, should feel softer than the rest of the melon.
The scent also reveals a lot about the maturity of a honeydew. Ripe honeydew melons have a strong, sweet scent, and the melon with the strongest scent will likely taste sweeter. Consumers should smell the honeydew near the stem end, where the melon would have been attached to the vine, as the honeydew scent will be strongest at that point.
There are two sound tests that help determine the ripeness of a honeydew melon. For the former, the consumer needs to knock on the side of the melon two or three times and listen carefully to how it sounds inside. Ripe honeydews have a deep sound with little echo, while unripe honeydews typically sound hollow.
A second sound test requires the consumer to gently shake the honeydew melon. More mature honeydews usually make a soft rattling sound. The seeds detach from the flesh once the melon begins to ripen and become juicier, so a little rattling lets the consumer know the melon is ripe without being overripe. Overripe and sour melons will sound velvety, and the consumer may hear a hissing sound instead of rattling. However, not all ripe melons will ring, so this test alone cannot reveal whether or not the honeydew is ripe.
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