Citron Melon

One of the heirloom melons planted in our garden this year is the citron melon.  I don't believe I have ever experienced the citron melon before.  I think all of the watermelon pickles that Grandma made were from regular watermelons.    I was surprized to find that these melons are as tough as nails!  Cutting into them, even with freshly sharpened knives was like trying to cut into an old field pumpkin.  Even the flesh is tough!  It took me two hours to cut up enough rind to make five quarts of one inch cubes.  I may try an electric carving knife for the next batch. Some of the recipes specific to citron melons mentioned that the flesh can be seeded and made into preserves also.  I may not bother with that, as our yield was over fifty melons.  I have already given some away and still have some on the vine that may go into the compost pile. 

I plan to make several batches of pickles or preserves, so we can do a comparison to see what we like best.  The recipe I am using for this first batch is called Rosy Watermelon Pickles.  I was looking for something different.  This one called for maraschino cherries for the color, and in addition to cloves, cinnamon and ginger root, also black pepper!   Sounds good to me.  The book is 'Farm Journal's Freezing and Canning Cookbook', 1978 edition.

Something I found in this book that I have found no where else is that it is better to use melons grown earlier in the season and not overripe in making preserves and pickles.  If these that I have are overripe, I would not know it considering how tough they are, but they are certainly not 'early'.

I was wondering if the recipes for watermelon rind pickles or preserves and citron melon preserves are interchangeable.  Still don't have an answer, but thought I would give it a shot and see what happens.  It seems that the recipes for citron melons that I have noticed, don't call for a brine.  I am wondering if this has something to do with the water content in citron versus a much jucier watermelon.  I went ahead and soaked them in a brine anyway, following the recipe.

While doing some searching around on the internet for recipes I came across this website WatermelonRind.com .  I may try some of the ideas found on the site.  There apparently are other ways to enjoy the rinds besides pickles and preserves!