Ingredient

Watermelon

A watermelon is around ninety-two per cent water and it does not ripen after picking at all, which makes choosing one at the shop the whole game. There are three reliable signs and none of them is the sound it makes when you hit it.

The three signs that work

All visible from outside, all more reliable than tapping.

The field spot

The pale patch where the melon rested on the ground. It should be creamy yellow or deep butter-coloured. White or greenish means it was picked early.

Weight

Heavy for its size. A watermelon is mostly water and a light one has lost some.

Webbing

Brown corky lines and speckles on the rind indicate heavy pollination, which correlates with sweetness. They look like blemishes and are a good sign.

Dull skin

A ripe watermelon has a matt, slightly dusty rind. Very shiny usually means underripe.

The stem

If present, it should be dry and brown. A green stem means picked before it was ready.

More savoury than it looks

Watermelon is sweet but low in acid, which is why it can taste flat and one-dimensional. It also contains a fair amount of free glutamate, which is why it works so well alongside salty and savoury things rather than only as a pudding.

This is the basis of the feta-and-watermelon salad, which is not the odd novelty it looks like: salt and sourness supply exactly what the fruit is missing, and the glutamate in both reinforces.

Lime, chilli, mint and black pepper all work for the same reason. So does a very good olive oil.

Beyond slices

• With feta, mint, olives and red onion, dressed with oil and a little vinegar. The classic and genuinely good.
• Grilled. Thick slabs on a hot griddle for a minute a side. It concentrates the sugar and gives an unexpected meatiness.
• Agua fresca — blitzed with water, lime and a little sugar, then strained. The standard Mexican summer drink.
• In a granita, where the low acid needs lime.
• Pickled rind. The white part between flesh and skin, peeled, cubed and pickled in a sweet spiced vinegar. Traditional in the American South and excellent with cold meat.
• Watermelon and tomato salad, which sounds strange and works because the two share aromatic compounds.
• Salted and chilled, the simplest treatment and often the best.

Cutting one down without a disaster

1. Wash the outside. The rind sits on soil and the knife carries whatever is on it into the flesh.
2. Cut a thin slice off each end so it sits flat.
3. Stand it upright and cut down the sides to remove the rind in strips, following the curve.
4. Cut the peeled cylinder into slabs, then batons, then cubes. Far tidier than wedges and much easier to store.
5. Keep the rind if you intend to pickle it. Peel off the dark green skin and use the pale part.
6. Refrigerate cut fruit covered — like other melons it takes on and gives off smells readily.

Common questions