Summer food: It’s easy to recognize the perfect watermelon

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Watermelon tastes like summer. The guest workers of the 1950s brought to our windows, formerly found in Italian fruit and vegetable shops. Many northerners looked at the large berries with some shock at first, surprised that they had already split in half or four when on display – and were surprised that the sight of the pulp along with the sprinkled seeds still made their mouths water. How was its taste? They waited a long time before taking their first bite.

But then in the summer sun, reservations about watermelons visibly melted away. It was convincing, first as a cold schnitzel, then as a granita—almost like cold water ice—and finally as a cool sweet and sour salad with grilled meat. This is how the green ball from the south passed through the European cuisines of the north. And then the fine cuisines of the world.

But upon closer inspection, he saw that he had already come a long way. In the mid-19th century, a Briton named David Livingston traveled to South Africa’s Kalahari Desert and discovered valleys filled with wild, climbing giant melons: the ancestors of all watermelons. This corrected the earlier view of botanists who had their origins around the Mediterranean.

Get to know the ripe watermelon

• You can understand the maturity level of watermelons by touching them. Ripe fruits sound plump and dull. The immature ones make a metallic, cold sound or no sound at all.
• Another clue is the color of the shell. If the place where the melon lies in the field is yellowish, it is ripe and intensely aromatic because it lies in the field until it ripens. If the spot is already very yellow, it is probably ripe.
• The weight test also provides information: Ripe watermelons weigh more than unripe watermelons of the same size.
• The bowl should give slightly when you press it, but not too many soft spots.
• Watermelon is bad if the base of the stem is dark or black or moist. Ideally, it’s still slightly green. Although melons continue to ripen at room temperature, they never taste like they were ripened in the field. Unripe watermelons have a laxative effect on some people.

Three facts about watermelon

1. The water content of a melon is 96%: This makes watermelon a nice thirst quencher on hot summer days. In addition, the green ball is a real vitamin bomb and low-calorie, so you can take it without hesitation – by the way, it tastes best chilled.
2. 32 000 tons of imports were made in 2017: By far the largest producer is China, followed by Türkiye and Iran. Watermelons from Italy and Spain are currently available for purchase in our stores. Local watermelons are exotic because only a few farmers grow red fruit.
3. Swiss eat 3.81 kg of food per person each year: With this weight, the watermelon climbed to 5th place in the 2017 vegetable hit parade. Fact: Watermelon is in the cucurbit family and is therefore a vegetable. However, due to its sweet taste, it is eaten as a fruit in our region.

Source : Blick