How to Cut A Watermelon

By : DishinandDishes | 5 Comments | On : June 14, 2011 | Category : Tips and Tricks

I haven’t posted a “how to”  lately for my Tips & Tricks section.  It occurred to me that one day, my kids might want to actually buy their own watermelon.

You know, after all those expensive college classes are done and they’ve actually faced the real world of paying their own bills?

Anyway, when they do buy a watermelon, they’re going to call me and ask how to cut it. 

I just know that call is coming.  And when it does, I’ll be ready…

With pictures.

I don’t proclaim to be the expert watermelon cutter, but this is how I do it, as safely as possible.

Remember my motto, “flat surfaces are our friends and round ones cause Band-Aids?”.

I try to keep that in mind while cutting large round rolley polley objects like watermelon.

First I cut it in half.

 Then I cut each half in half, by laying its flat surface face-down.

Note from picture above – it’s not vitally important to cut it perfectly in half..lopsided will do just fine.

Now leaving one of these pieces with the flat side down, I start cutting slices.

This makes a nice thick or thin slice of watermelon, depending how you like yours.

And now you can cut each slice into 3 wedges for easy pick-up and eating.

Which I believe is the way watermelon is meant to be eaten.  Nothing says summer like fresh ripe watermelon juice running down your arms and dripping off your elbows.   I also eat salt sprinkled on mine, which really freaks out the Wonderful man.

But if you’re my Mom or Mr. Wonderful, you prefer clean hands and nice and tidy pieces.  So you take a paring knife.

And you just trim around the part where the red and the white meet near the rind.

And then you take those pieces and cut them into whatever sizes you wish. 

Here’s a fun thing to do for your kids, or a man who is up in a tree with dirty hands cutting down tree limbs.

And don’t forget that end piece…

You can trim around that as well with your paring knife.

But I like to just use a spoon and get out all its goodness while I cut the rest up.

**To pick watermelons, look for unbruised fruit.  Ones with a large spot of yellow are good (as opposed to white) and they should feel heavy for their size and sound hollow when you knock on them.

Is this how you cut yours?  I bet there are more than one ways to do this…

This one just makes sense to me..cuz I’ve been known to lop off a chunk of my finger before.