I’m starting to see water melons in the grocery and it reminded me of a difference between my wife and I. I absolutely have to have salt on my water melon and pretty much all other melons. My wife thinks this is crazy and said she occasionally will put sugar on a melon which I think is nuts.
My mindset goes back to riding a tractor when I was young with an old relative in Tennessee into the melon patch… picking out a nice one, bringing it back and there was always a salt shaker nearby.
So, salt on melons or no?
I’ll admit though that even if everyone else says no salt I won’t change.
Never tried it with watermelon. Tried it a few times with typical breakfast melons, it helps bring out the flavor, sometimes. If you have some bland melon then try it sometime.
I’ve never salted a melon. But I’ve had melon with prosciutto, which i suppose it’s similar. It feels like a weird combination to me. But hey, if you live it, you should do it.
My Mother puts salt on everything including her watermelon. I don’t get it but she can’t be without it. Dad will occasionally sprinkle a little on but not to the level she does. My boys are equally split, youngest says no way, oldest enjoys a little.
BTW we just had watermelon tonight for and it was delicious. (without salt of course)
I’ve tried both salt and sugar on various melons and fruits. It does give a different taste but… honestly, I prefer the unchanged flavor and don’t salt or sugar things like that anymore.
Honestly, I’m baffled by people who put sugar on things like melons and strawberries. Really? They’re already pretty sweet on their own.
I don’t do it, myself. But it’s well-known that a little bit of salt, in addition to adding a salty flavor, also enhances whatever other flavors (like sweetness) a dish already has. And in the specific case of something like a melon, it probably makes it “juicier”, too.
I was going to ask if pineapple was a melon. (Or is it an apple? :)) My brother in law would grill thick pineapple slices after the steaks/burgers were done and the slices picked up salt that way. Quite tasty.
I’ve never put salt directly on a watermelon or other melon, but I can see how the sweet / savoury combo could appeal.
One of our favourite summer recipes is a feta cheese & watermelon salad. I cringed at the thought, but the saltiness of the feta goes great with the sweetness of the watermelon. Make that for your wife one day and that may be the thin end of the wedge to covert her.
Similar situations I know:
Apples - I recall growing up that it was common to put salt on apples.
Cottage Cheese - My wife and I have the same debate about cottage cheese. She salts and sometimes peppers it, which I find repulsive. I add sweet ingredients like fruit and or sugar. This seems to rooted in the fact that she was raised to believe that cottage cheese is in the cheese family like cheddar. In my house, cottage cheese was a dairy product like yogurt, so you added sweet ingredients. We still find each other’s preference revolting.
