Dried Rockmelon
Snack
Recipe
Having recently tried Watermelon Jerky I thought that I’d see how rockmelon would stack up. While I realise that watermelon contains much more liquid, I expected the drying process for rockmelon to be very similar; understandably there were a few differences, some of which surprised me.
The preparation came down to choosing a ripe melon but in my case I could only get a melon that was a bit hard so I needed to wait a week to let it soften. My melon of choice ended up being 1.15 kg and by the time I halved it, and removed the seeds and skin I ended up with 624 grams of watermelon flesh, roughly half of what I started with. Prior to de-skinning the melon, which involved running a knife around each piece, I ran the halves through a mandolin slicer using the thick cut setting which gave me slices around 4 mm thick. If you feel like it you can cut the slices in half but in my case I left the pieces as is.
The drying process was relatively quick at 12 hours with only one turning required but I did go from three trays down to two by the end of the process.
Taste wise dried rockmelon isn’t as sugary as Watermelon Jerky and while the Jerky is still my favourite the subdued rockmelon taste is really nice so much so Gill and I cleaned up the dried product within about a day. What surprised me was that the end result weighed in at only 56 grams and it took much more space than I would have suspected.
Overall this is a winner and one I will seek out on a regular basis.
Preparation
Preparing Dried Rockmelon is pretty simple.
- Purchase watermelon from your local supermarket. A 1.15 kg melon will end up providing 54 grams of dried product. This melon also took up three full trays in my dehydrator or the equivalent space in the oven
- Trim the ends of the melon, cut in half, and scoop out the seeds
- Cut the melon into slices of around 4 mm thick. You can use a knife but a mandolin slicer makes things much easier
- Trim the rind off leaving as much flesh as possible. You can shorten the strips if you feel like
- Place in a dehydrator or oven on a medium heat (55-60° Celcius) for approximately 12 hours turning once at around the 7 hour mark. The melon is ready when it has a slight bendy consistency that once cooled becomes almost crisp
- Store in an airtight container until use.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Drying Time: 12 Hours
The end result for a 1.15 kg rockmelon is:
- 624 grams of watermelon flesh
- 34 calories per 100 grams
- 56 grams of Dried Rockmelon
- 392 calories per 100 grams
The starting point, a ripe melon weight 1.15 kg
Step 1: Trim the ends of the rockmelon, halve the melon and deseed
Stop 2: Slice the melon to around 4 mm thick and trim the rind off
Step 3: Melon ready to dry, leave slight gaps between the fruit
Step 4: Melon dried still in the dehydrator
End result 56 grams of dried rockmelon
Last Updated
14 April 2024