How to choose the perfect melon, a summer mystery with four recipes

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Recipe: Tierra Sur’s heirloom melon gazpacho (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

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Spicy cantaloupe and ginger popsicle. Recipe: Spicy cantaloupe and ginger popsicle (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

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Cubed watermelon is combined with feta, mint, a little jalapeno and a cumin-lime dressing. Recipe: Watermelon salad with feta, mint and cumin-lime dressing. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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Smoked chicken and cantaloupe balance each other well in this salad. The finishing touch is cracked pepper. Recipe: Smoked chicken and cantaloupe salad (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

By Russ Parsons

Aug. 10, 2013 7 AM PT

The very best thing you can do with a perfect summer melon is eat it with a spoon. Anything you can do to it in the kitchen would be ornamentation, not improvement. That said, sometimes it’s fun to play around, right? That’s particularly true when the markets are as full of terrific melons as they are right now.

Choosing a melon is a little tricky and requires some background. There are two types of melons and they’re divided not by color, but by the texture of their peel.

Rough-skinned melons are in the cantaloupe family. Smooth-skinned melons are in the honeydew family. Both groups have green- and orange-fleshed members (watermelons are actually members of a different family entirely; we’ll deal with them another time).

This is important to know because the keys to selecting a perfect melon vary dramatically between the two groups.

How to choose: We’ll start with rough-skinned melons because they are the simplest to choose. You want to look for netting that is raised above the rind; a golden background color; a clean “belly button,” where the stem has slipped free; and a profoundly melon-y perfume.

Smooth-skinned melons are tougher to choose, mainly because they give off no perfume (their Latin botanical name is “inodorous”). Look for melons that have a slightly velvety, almost waxy texture to the rind; a background color that is more rich cream than ivory; a golden color to the pale spot where the melon rested on the ground; and subtle cracking around the stem end. (I learned this last one from Neil Ims of Weiser Family Farms – aka “The Melon Whisperer.”)

How to store: Both types of melons can be stored at room temperature. They will continue to ripen after being picked. Personally, I like my melons cold, so I chill them in the refrigerator the night before serving.

How to prepare: Split them in half and spoon out the seeds (the riper the melon, the looser the seeds will be attached to the flesh). There you go!

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