How to Store Winter Melon
- Store It Whole in a Cool and Dry Place Like most fruits, you can store a whole winter melon. ...
- Refrigerate in Slices If your gourd is already cut, you can still keep its flesh for a couple of days. ...
- Pickle the Flesh You can also try pickling your gourd, a traditional preservation method that dates back to Ancient China. ...
- Make Winter Melon Candy ...
Can winter melon be frozen?
Once sliced, the melon pieces will keep up to one week when stored in a plastic bag in the refrigerator's crisper drawer. Peeled and raw Winter melon chunks can also be frozen for extended use.
How do you store melons long term?
Whole melon should be left at room temperature until ripe. Once ripe, place whole, uncovered melons, in the refrigerator. To store melon halves, cover tightly with either ClingWrap or Press'n Seal® wrap. To store cut melon, seal in a GladWare® food protection container and refrigerate.
How can you tell if a winter melon is good?
Winter melons are ready to harvest when the mature fruit has an ashy appearance, and the stem has withered and turned brown. The ripe melon will smell sweet on the stem end and will be large and heavy.
How long do melons last once picked?
That depends a lot on whether you've cut it up or not. A whole, uncut cantaloupe or honeydew melon should last for seven to 10 days in the refrigerator. A whole, uncut watermelon is even sturdier: It should be good for two weeks.
How long can you store a winter melon?
Unwashed whole winter melon can be stored in a cool, dark, dry place for up to 5 months. Once sliced, you should always wrap it with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge, where it will last up to 1 week.
Do melons need to be refrigerated?
Melon: Melons, including watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew, should be kept at room temperature until you cut into them to ensure they have the best flavor. Once they've been cut into, store them in the refrigerator and be sure to eat within four days.
Can I eat winter melon raw?
Unlike a watermelon, the flesh and seeds are white, it's relatively tasteless, and it cannot be eaten raw. Instead, recipes with winter melon often call for steaming, simmering, or parboiling, but be careful not to overcook it—it can get mushy.
Can diabetic eat winter melon?
Winter melon for diabetics patients Diabetics are known to be benefitted a lot due to the medicinal and healing properties of winter melon. Also it can be included in the diet of a diabetic since it is low in calories.
Can you eat winter melon skin?
Winter melon should not be consumed raw. First, the skin and seeds must be removed. Then the flesh of the fruit can be sliced or cubed and lightly cooked.
How can I preserve melon at home?
Melons (Cantaloupe, Crenshaw, Honeydew, or Watermelon)Preparation – Select firm-fleshed, well-colored, ripe melons. Cut in half, remove seeds and rind. ... Syrup Pack – Pack into containers and cover with cold 30 percent syrup. Leave headspace. ... Unsweetened Pack – Pack into containers, leaving headspace. Seal and freeze.
How do you harvest and store melons?
All types of melons should be stored at 95% relative humidity. Cantaloupe should be stored at 40 degrees fahrenheit, and honeydew can be stored in slightly warmer conditions, between 45-50 degrees fahrenheit. The crisper drawer in a refrigerator is a great place to store these melons once they are ripe.
Can you freeze melon?
Melon can be frozen for around 6 months. You can freeze most melon varieties with ease and they can be frozen as chunks, slices or even as a puree.
How do you preserve melons?
FreezingPreparation – Select firm-fleshed, well-colored, ripe melons. Cut in half, remove seeds and rind. Cut melons into slices, cubes or balls.Syrup Pack – Pack into containers and cover with cold 30 percent syrup. Leave headspace. ... Unsweetened Pack – Pack into containers, leaving headspace. Seal and freeze.
Can you freeze melons?
Melon can be frozen for around 6 months. You can freeze most melon varieties with ease and they can be frozen as chunks, slices or even as a puree.
What is the best way to store cantaloupe?
How to Store. Let a not-quite-ready cantaloupe ripen at room temperature for up to two days (keeping it in a closed paper bag will speed up the process). Refrigerate a whole ripe melon for up to five days. For cut wedges of cantaloupe, cover the surfaces and refrigerate for up to three days.
Can you freeze a whole cantaloupe?
Cantaloupes can be frozen and kept for up to 6 months if frozen properly. If you're looking for a quick meal or snack, frozen cantaloupe is an excellent choice. They will keep for up to six months in the freezer and will be just as tasty as they were fresh.
What Is a Winter Melon?
It is a mild-tasting fruit that belongs to the cucurbit family, along with cucumbers, melons, zucchini, pumpkins, and squash. Despite the name, winter melons thrive in warm climates. They hail from the sunny regions of South and Southeast Asia, although these gourds are now widely available in other parts of the world.
How to Clean and Prepare Winter Melon
Clean the fruit before cutting and cooking it. Follow these simple steps for the standard way of preparing the fruit:
How to Cook Winter Melon
This food preparation method involves cooking food with steam. Usually, steamed winter melons are cooked in a carved winter melon bowl. The fruit is usually emptied and stuffed with a combination of fruit slices and other ingredients.
Winter Melon Health Benefits and Nutritional Value
This fruit is made of 96% water. As a result, this winter gourd is low in calories, fats, protein, and carbohydrates. Studies have also shown that this melon boasts a good amount of fiber, vitamin C, and antioxidants that help keep your bodily defenses against diseases in check.
Where and How to Buy Winter Melon?
These gourds are available year-round at local Asian markets or supermarkets. Around late summer to early winter when these melons are in season, the fruits are sometimes sold as a whole. Other times of the year, you can get them already sliced or cubed.
How to Store Winter Melon?
The first method involves storing the gourd as a whole fruit. For this method, you should store your winter gourd in a cool and dry place. Kept in the right conditions, they should stay good for months and even up to a year.
When to Harvest Melons
Harvest smooth-skinned muskmelons —which include honeydew, Crenshaw, and casaba–when they turn cream-colored. The blossom end will give slightly when pressed, and the fruit will readily separate from the stem.
How to Harvest Melons
A fully ripe melon will separate from the vine with light pressure. You can also cut melons from the vine with a sharp knife, garden pruner or lopper.
How to Store Melons
For best flavor, allow a melon to rest for a day or two before serving.
All about Winter Melon
A native of Asia, winter melon (Benincasa hispida) goes by many names. Depending on the culture it can be called wax gourd, winter gourd, ash gourd, white gourd, or ash pumpkin. As for the winter in the name, it’s because some varieties of the winter melon become ripe and ready to harvest in the late fall or early winter.
Winter Melon Varieties
Not all winter melon varieties taste or even look the same. Some are waxy while others have a rough texture. Their uses and the dishes you can make out of the ripe winter melon vary depending on the vine you grow. So you’ll need to choose your variety carefully so that you won’t end up with the wrong wax gourd on your dinner table.
How to Grow Winter Melon
Now that we have dispelled the myth about wax gourd being a winter veggie, we need to remind you that this is very much a summer vine. To start it in your garden, you need to get the seeds from reliable sources and not through unsolicited mail. Here’s how to grow winter melon in easy steps.
Winter Melon Care
You can also use inverted hills instead of mounds to grow winter melon vines. They allow the vines to run alongside the mounds and improve the drainage and aeration of the soil. Once you have the vines growing successfully, you’ll need to cater to the water, pruning, and watch out for pests and diseases.
Harvesting Winter Melon
How long your winter melon needs for the fruits to become ripe and ready to harvest depends on the variety you grow. The good news is, the ripe fruits have many telltale signs that make it easy for you to harvest them before wildlife beats you to the succulent melons.
Winter Melon Fruit
Winter melon plants grow as a vine and produce fruits that look very similar to squashes. The vine and its leaves also look much alike to those of squashes.
Cultivation
Now that you know a few things about the origins of the winter melon, it’s time to learn how to grow it.
Requirements
Winter melons are annual plants, which means you have to plant it every year to get new crops.
Temperature
Winter melons require a minimum temperature of approximately 60°F (15°C) and not more than 95°F (35°C). These plants are no-frost tolerant and require a period of extended heat to reach maturity.
Planting
I cannot give you an exact date for when it’s the best time to plant the winter melon outside or in unheated protected areas since the climate in different countries and regions can differ quite a lot.
Soil Type
Winter melons grow best in slightly acid soil with a pH level in the 5.5-6.5 range. It also needs to be well-drained and rich in organic matter.
Watering
Winter melons need a good amount of water for healthy growth, especially during the fruit forming period. Yet, they also need well-drained soil, so make sure you don’t overdo it.
What Are Winter Melons?
Not all melons are as juicy as the typical watermelon you would find in summer. Some, like the winter melon, are much closer to a cucumber or other seedy or dense fruits. In fact, whilst growing into the delicious treat that is enjoyed all around Asia (and more recently – the world) it is covered in hairs.
What Do Winter Melons Taste Like?
Lacking the juicy interior of a watermelon, the winter melon instead has an entirely solid and fleshy centre (except for the seeds, of course). This dense fruit’s insides are often compared to the rind of a normal watermelon. This taste is so similar that you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference in just a simple taste test.
How Best to Store Them?
The winter melon does not play fair when it comes to storage. Whilst most other fruits are edible for up to a week (if they are lucky), this excessively waxy gourd manages to stay perfectly fine for up to a year if stored properly! Cold and dark places are perfect for keeping your winter melons fresh and ready to eat, but you probably guessed that.
Cooking With A Winter Melon
The easiest way to approach cooking with this waxy gourd is to approach it like squash. Preparation of a winter melon requires that you remove the seeds and skin, leaving only the dense flesh for use in dishes. However, unlike other melons, you don’t want to eat this raw – unless you have a thing for rock-solid cubes of food.
Nutrition
Before we get into the nutrition, it is worth mentioning that many cultures, particularly in India, claim that winter melons possess medicinal properties that have led to their use in many homemade remedies for dysentery.
Winter Melon F.A.Qs
A lot bigger than you think, with properly matured melons reaching 80cm in length. In contrast, its width is often a fraction of this leading to a typically elongated shape like an eggplant or aubergine for the UK readers.
Planting Winter Melon
Winter melons have a long growing season and are usually harvested in late fall.
Harvesting Winter Melon
Winter melon can take a long time to come to fruition, but they'll usually be ready to harvest 110 days after sowing.
How to Cook With Winter Melon
Winter melons have a multitude of uses in the kitchen, so many so in fact, that they truly could be unlimited! Often used in Chinese cooking, you can usually find winter melon at your local Asian markets.
