My father passed on his guide to selecting a good one as follows:
Remember your hand when selecting loupes.
A - Aroma should be pleasing at the stem.
N - Netting, there should be a lot on the surface of the loupe.
D - Depression, the stem base should sink in a little.
I have always picked good cantaloupes using this as a guide.
By Susanne Keller from Boiling Springs, PA
This page contains the following solutions.
My son works in the produce section of one of our local grocery stores and he says to look at the "squiggles" on the outside of a cantaloupe. If they are close together, it's not ready. If there is a good amount of space between the "squiggles", it's ripe! Enjoy!
Smell the end of the cantaloupe. You should be able to smell the sweetness.
When choosing a cantaloupe or mush melon as my Papaw used to say, search for one by sniffing the fruit. If it has a sweet, musky smell, it'll be a good fruit.
When choosing a cantaloupe I smell it on the stem end. If it smells like cantaloupe I know it's ready to eat. If selecting a cantaloupe that I want in a couple days I choose a nice firm one and then let it ripen in my pantry until it smells like a cantaloupe on the stem end.
In selecting a good cantaloupe, look for a good orange coloring under the lace of the skin and no soft spots on the ends.
My mother always told me to sniff the end of the melon where the stem was attached. If you can smell cantaloupe, it's ripe.
You should hear a hollow sound when you slap the cantaloupe with the palm of your hand.
A produce man once told me "the stronger the cantaloup smell, the riper the melon". It's true.
I always make sure the cantaloupe has a yellow spot and I smell it. If it smells like a cantaloupe, then it's surely going to be a ripe one.
