I'm a little wasted but she's awesome. You all should listen to her. It's like I met my lost sister.
by J. Kenji López-Alt
Updated Jun. 01, 2021
Just as the first step to pouring a great glass of wine is finding a great wine, the first step to a great watermelon salad is finding a great watermelon. When my wife, Adri, and I lived in Harlem, I bought my watermelons from my watermelon guy, an older gentleman who'd park his pickup on a corner, its cargo bed overflowing with watermelons he'd shipped up from his family farm in Georgia. He'd set up a folding chair under a small tent and man a turkey fryer rigged to boil peanuts, looking up occasionally to inform his customers that, yes, all he was selling today was peanuts, watermelons, smoked turkey necks, and collard greens.
His watermelons were remarkable. Dense, richly colored, deeply aromatic, and sweet. A far cry from the average watery, bland supermarket watermelon. I've yet to find my watermelon guy in my current home in California, but there are still ways to locate decent specimens. The best method by far is to hit your local farmers market in the summer, and look for vendors with opened watermelons who will let you take a taste before you purchase.
Is the supermarket your only option? Here are a few tips to help make the best of it:
Look for watermelons that feel relatively heavy for their size. Watermelons that grow too fast or big can end up with hollow cracks and crevices, making them feel lighter. These watermelons typically also have a more watered-down flavor. Dense watermelons should taste sweeter and have a better aroma.
Look for melons that show signs of a clean break at the stem. Watermelons, like all fruit, are attached at one end to their parent plants. When they reach peak ripeness, the stem will often automatically detach, leaving a clean crater behind. When the melons are picked less ripe, the stem often refuses to break free cleanly, leaving behind part or all of itself at the attachment site. This doesn't mean all watermelons with some stem attached won't be good—many still are—but a clean stem crater is generally a very good sign.
Rap the watermelon with your knuckles. Watermelons that sound very hollow...probably are. Avoid 'em.
Look for smaller varieties. Smaller melon varieties often (but not always) have more concentrated flavor.
I like to keep things simple for the diner by dicing the watermelon into bite-size cubes, rather than the cheffy-looking slabs, stacks, or rounds that seem to be popular and require the use of an extra utensil at the dinner table.
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