Cantaloupes have been on sale for great prices recently, but it doesn’t matter how much you save if you don’t bring home a delicious cantaloupe. Picking a perfect cantaloupe is easy if you know the secret.
Lift the cantaloupe to your nose and smell the part of the cantaloupe where it was severed from the vine. Keep smelling melons until you find a cantaloupe that smells like a slice of cantaloupe.
I also like my cantaloupe to be a little soft. I like a little give when I squeeze my melons – not squishy, but not rock hard either.
What are your tips for picking fresh produce?
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This is good info. I don’t like cantaloupe but my kids love it. I’ve never had any idea how to choose one.
They are on sale at Raley’s for $0.99 each through the end of today.
I always do this, but it seems there’s always a good half inch of rind to cut off, and the only way I know it’s going to be sweet and fully ripe is to let them sit until it actually gets a bad spot on it. Then I cut it open, cut off the bad spot, and the canteloupe is wonderful! I think the lopes are probably being pulled from the vine much too early.
Alea, you are exactly right on here. You can use the same technique for peaches … and if strawberries don’t have the fragrance of strawberry, walk on by.
I do this and sometimes go through the whole display without finding a ripe one. *sigh* Often when they DO smell ripe they are almost bad and/or going moldy.
I am fortunate to live near “catnaloupe country”, but even still I sometimes have to smell 20 – 30 cantaloupe before I find a good one.
Alea – you are RIGHT ON!!!! The ONLY way to pick a cantaloupe and peach for that matter is to smell it! I go nuts when I see people squeezing and bruising fresh fruit. Just yesterday a woman asks why I was smelling the peaches. So I told her and probably gave her more information than she asked for, but I did see her smelling them as I walked away.
When I get home, I set the cantaloupe on the counter and once I can smell it across the room, I’ll put it in the fridge. Thanks for sharing this knowledge!