Clearly the antichrist is among us and his name is ftg :eek:
Salt on watermelon. It’s just… it’s just… it’s just… well, it just ain’t right! And that ought to be a good enough reason not to do it.
Salt on watermelons? I suppose next you’ll tell me you put salt instead of sugar on tomatoes. I’ve read some weird eating habits in here, but salt on watermelons… Hey, to each their own. Unless it’s salt on watermelons. That’s just wrong.
Never salted a melon (heh), but I salt other things. Apples, tomatos, ice cream.
That’s right, ice cream.
Actually, I usually crumble pretzels over cookie dough ice cream, but the sweet and the salt… mmmmmm.
My Google of ‘salty Melons’ was disappointingly tame…
That’s ‘cause yer from Noo Yawk. Salting watermelons is a deeply Southern thing, just like puttin’ peanuts in yer Coca-Cola. But, my Japanese teacher just told us last week that they do it in Japan too…
I don’t put salt on watermellons. However, one of my favotire treats in the hot months is eating my watermellon with slices of crumbly feta cheese - which is pretty salty - and washing it down with ouzo.
This thread title sounds like sexual innuendo in an old blues song:
[Blind Melon Chitlin’]
O, I’m gonna salt my watermelon, baby
Salt it 'till it tastes just right
I’m gonna salt my watermelon, baby
Salt it 'till it tastes just right
You know when like like it salty - it just has a little extra bite.
[/Blind Melon Chitlin’]
Thank you - thank you very much.
(for the record, I have never heard of this practice…)
Oh, yeah. Salted watermelon…mmmmm! It definitely enhances the taste.
I also salt cantaloupe and other melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, and most everything that anyone else has mentioned here.
My salt shaker is one of my best friends. Thank goodness I have low blood pressure.
Well, that just does it! All you watermelon salters! I can’t take it any more. I give up! The terrorists have won. The apocalypse is upon us. Civilization crumbles all around me. I will never ever hear of anything worse than salting watermelon. That’s it. It’s over. Bring on the locusts.
I salted my ice cream too, once. To prove to my husband that salt is a flavor enhancer and it’s the same principle as salting watermelon, cantalope, honey dew…any other melon I can think of…
In fact, melons without salt taste pretty gross to me. I also like chocolate on my pretzels and peanuts and sugar on my chilli (with beans). I find contrasting flavors very pleasant.
I don’t.
but then again, I don’t salt anything.
Salt on watermelon is tasty stuff.
As other posters have said, it’s a flavor enhancer. That’s why we use it. We don’t use enough to make it “salty” but just enough to bring out the flavor.
It’s not just a Southern thing. I grew up in SW Pennsylvania, and we salted our watermelon. No one from my family ever lived in the South either - I’m second gen from Ireland.
And I do it because I got used to the taste of it as a kid, and it just doesn’t seem right without it now. But just a little, as described above. Along with sugar in the iced tea (brewed that way, prefered.)
Good stuff:
Salt on watermelon (just a little, to enhance the taste);
Salt on apples (granny smith’s only);
Salted peanuts in co-cola (delicious, when I used to drink them); AND
Salt in beer – Anybody ever try that?
(slight highjack) Speaking of predelictions, my mother almost never ate greens and cornbread with a fork. She would always break off a piece of cornbread, grab some greens with it and eat it that way. I thought that was strange, but when I tried it, the bread and greens seemed to taste twice as good. Haven’t done it since childhood though.
I’m southern, cantcha tell?
Yeah, I’m actually surprised at the number of non-Southern dopers who do it. The only families I knew who did it were old-school deep south. Hmmm, I wonder if it’s an Irish thing, a lot of southern have deep Irish roots…
2nd generation Minnesotan here. (Swedish/Polish too, so not Irish)
I’ve been salting the melons (cantaloupe/muskemelon/watermelon) ever since I can remember.
Sugar in tea?? Sugar on tomatoes?? Eww.
Lemon, and vinegar & salt, respectively. Thankyouverymuch.
I don’t always do it now, but I definitely salted it when I was a kid. My mama probably would have slapped me if I didn’t salt it. 
Tasted good that way, too. Of course, I salt tomatoes and drink sweet tea, so I’m probably just crazy.
Jammer
And the award for best dramatic performance by a Doper goes to…swampbear!!!
Because it tastes good.
So there.
Avoid restaurants in the South.