5 Ways to Tell if a Cantaloupe Is Ripe
The 101 on this mysterious melon.
Sara Haas
When it comes to summer fruit, a juicy cantaloupe is one of the most delicious. Though it's available year-round in most grocery stores, already cut up into chunks and packaged, many of us wait all year for the sweet, summertime goodness of biting into peak season melon.
If you're heading out to the store or open-air market to purchase a melon, determining whether one is ripe or rotten can be something of a mystery. Unlike those plastic-packed hunks with their positives and negatives visible for the world to see, what's hiding inside a whole melon's thick skin is much more of a gamble.
Since produce managers and farmers alike tend to frown on cutting a cantaloupe open before it's made it safely to your home (not to mention before it's purchased), it's a good practice to outfit yourself with a few techniques for recognizing ripeness.
Related: 5 Ways To Tell if a Pineapple Is Ripe
How to Tell if a Cantaloupe Is Ripe
Picking Time
If you're picking the cantaloupe yourself, choosing when to do so is paramount. A cantaloupe grown where it's warm and the soil is fertile will be ready roughly 30 days after the flowers bloom on the vine. In cooler places, it will be closer to 45. The best way to tell if it's prime for plucking is to inspect the stem's attachment to the fruit itself. If you try to tug the fruit off the stem and it resists, leave it be and return in a couple days. If it pops off easily, it's ready to go!
Appearance
While perusing the produce section of your local grocer or farm stand, feast your eyes on the fruit's rind. Green indicates the fruit is unripe. If it's in the beige family – perhaps a tan, a sandy gold, or even yellow hue beneath the net-like texture, it's bound to be juicy and sweet. It might also have bit of discoloration from where it rested on the ground while still on the vine. (Juice gets heavy, ya know?)
The end where the stem was attached should have a bit of a dip to it. If it's flat, the cantaloupe likely wasn't ripe. And certainly, if there's still a stem attached, it absolutely wasn't ready to be picked.Finally, once it's cut open, or if you're buying it already cut, look for that signature bright orange, even color.
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Feel
Using your thumb, press against where the stem was attached. It should be firm, but if it's too hard or too soft it's unripe or overripe respectively. Like Goldilocks, you're looking for a give that's just right. When you push on the opposite end from where the stem was attached, or the blossom end, it should also give way a bit. If it's hard, it's not yet mature.
A perfect cantaloupe should be fairly firm all over and heavier than it looks when you pick it up. Pick up a few to compare weights and choose the one that's heavier. In terms of firmness, you're looking for something akin to a pineapple, not a watermelon.
Sound
Knock on the rind like you would knock on a door. If it sounds high and hollow, it'll likely let ya down. If it's low, deep, and solid, that sounds like juicy situation.
Get the recipe: Cantaloupe Frenzy
Smell
Smell the blossom end (again, the opposite side from where the stem was attached). You're looking for a sweet, floral, almost musky scent. If there's barely anything or no smell at all, it isn't ripe. If you can smell alcohol or acetone, the fruit is fermenting inside its own skin and is past the consumption point.
What to Do With an Unripe Cantaloupe
It's a sad affair to get home and realize your gamble didn't pay off. If you haven't cut it yet, leave it on the counter at room temperature for a bit. If you've cut it, just put the fruit in a sealed container for 4 or more days. You can't make it any riper, but you can make it a bit softer.
You can place it in a paper bag for a day or so in hopes the ethylene gas will help you out, but it won't do too much — once the fruit is at the market, what you see is pretty much what you get.
Use your unripe melon in other applications besides eating it raw. Put it in a smoothie with some other fruits, perhaps, or slice it and stick it on the grill – the heat will release more juices and make for a smoky summer treat.
Related: Hot Tips to Make the Best Grilled Fruit
Will Cantaloupe Ripen on the Counter?
Not really. Some fruit will continue the ripening process after its picked, but cantaloupe is no such fruit. Once the globe is off the vine, it's done. Witnessing the melon get softer may seem like ripening, but it's really just the beginning of the decaying process.
Ways to Use Ripe Cantaloupe
Cantaloupe and its juice are perfect for a wide range of recipes, both sweet and savory. It pairs perfectly with prosciutto for a sweet and salty appetizer, contributes beautifully to fruit salads and salsas, and joins a juice blend, smoothie, or mimosa effortlessly. Use it as a fresh topping for yogurt or granola or simply dust some slices with salt and dig in.
This melon is chock full of antioxidants, electrolytes, and a ton of other nutrients, and has a high fiber content for your digestive health. No matter how you choose to enjoy it, you'll be glad you did.