How To Keep Cut Watermelon From Getting Soggy
Watermelon is a healthy and nutritious snack to enjoy all summer long. However, once a watermelon is cut, you have to know how to store it correctly to keep it as fresh as possible and to stop it from getting soggy and mushy.
Most importantly, you want to store your cut watermelon in the fridge and stop any air from getting onto the cut side. You can wrap it with clingwrap, place it in an airtight bag or put the cut pieces into an airtight container. All of these methods still mean that your watermelon should be stored in the fridge.
Wrapping Your Cut Watermelon In Clingwrap
Generally, an uncut watermelon should last for around two weeks in the fridge. However, once it’s cut, the cut end needs to be protected from the air, and you need to continue to store the watermelon in the fridge.
If you’ve just cut off one end of the watermelon, you can place some clingwrap over this end and then extend this right over the melon. You have to ensure that the entire melon is encased tightly within the clingwrap. This is to ensure that no air gets onto the cut end. This will stop the cut end from becoming soggy.
Additionally, it will also stop the watermelon from absorbing any of the odors or flavors of other items that you have in the fridge.
Wrapping your watermelon this way should keep it relatively fresh for around a week.
Placing Your Cut Watermelon Into A Plastic Bag
Another thing that you can do is place a large plastic bag over the cut end of the watermelon and then take it right around the entire melon. Once again, you want to encase the entire melon in the bag so that no air gets onto the cut end. Make sure you seal the bag after expelling all the air.
If you don’t have a bag large enough to encase the whole watermelon with the cut end, you can easily just slice the watermelon into pieces and then place all of these pieces into the plastic bag before sealing it.
If you plan to do this, remember that you’ll have to eat the watermelon faster because it will keep fresher for longer if it’s not cut up entirely. The hard outer rind will protect the flesh quite well as long as the watermelon is not exposed to air.
You could also just slice up one half of the watermelon and keep the other half whole. In this case, the cut pieces should be placed in an airtight container and kept in the fridge. The uncut half should be tightly wrapped with clingwrap and also kept in the fridge.
In general, watermelon cut into slices or pieces will only last around three days in the refrigerator.
Store Your Cut Pieces Of Watermelon In An Airtight Container With A Colander
One of the problems with watermelon that has been cut into bite-sized pieces is that the melon will lose some of its water once it’s cut. So, if you just put the cut pieces into an airtight container in the fridge, the pieces at the bottom of the container will sit in the water and will go soggy.
To stop this from happening, place a colander, the bowl of your salad spinner, or a trivet into the bottom of the container. In fact, you use anything that will allow the water to drain from the melon but keep the watermelon pieces from sitting in the water.
Even an upturned plate in the bottom of the container will work as long as the water can drain away from the watermelon pieces.
Of course, you want to ensure that you can also put the top onto the container. If this is not possible because the colander is too large, simply place the entire container into a large plastic bag that you can seal.
This should definitely stop all of your watermelon pieces from becoming soggy as they sit in the fridge for a couple of days.
Put Left Over Watermelon In The Freezer
If you really have an oversupply of watermelon pieces, you can open freeze them, and then store them in a plastic bag in the freezer. These are ideal for making ice cream or adding to smoothies.