How to freeze melon: freezing rules and basic mistakes

How to choose the right melon

For freezing, you need to choose a fleshy berry with crispy pulp. The correct melon has a peel with a cracked pattern. The melon should be very sweet and aromatic.

Mistake #1: Freezing watery melon varieties. Such melons do not tolerate freezing well, and as a result turn into shapeless porridge.

To learn how to choose the right melon, watch the video from Svetlana Chernova - Rules for choosing ripe and sweet melon

Methods for freezing melons for the winter

Melon, in general, is not the best option for freezing, so you shouldn’t expect much from the final product. The maximum that melon can be used for is smoothies, cocktails or porridge filling.

Melon does not fit the general principles of freezing berries.It is pointless to freeze it entirely, because the berry freezes unevenly, the juice inside turns into large crystals and deforms the pulp.

Mistake #2: Freezing whole melon.

So how do you freeze melon in the freezer?

Melon, frozen in pieces

Ripe berries are washed and dried with towels. Then cut in half and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Peel the skin with a knife and cut the melon into pieces. You can cut into thin slices, cubes, or use a round spoon to form melon balls.

Mistake #3: Freezing melon in large pieces. They cannot freeze evenly quickly, so the finished product turns out soggy.

The melon is laid out on a cutting board lined with cellophane. The main thing is that the pieces are located at a short distance from each other to avoid them freezing into one piece.

After a day, the frozen pieces can be poured into one bag or container or bag.

Melon with powdered sugar

To prevent the sweetness from being lost during freezing, you can use powdered sugar. To do this, pieces prepared as described above are sprinkled with powder on top before placing in the freezer. This preparation will significantly improve the taste.

Melon, frozen as puree

If the berry turns out to be very soft, then it can be frozen in the form of puree. The peeled melon is ground in a blender until smooth and then poured into plastic cups, ice cube trays or silicone muffin tins. The puree is frozen for 24 hours, and then removed from the molds and transferred to special bags for the freezer. The cups are wrapped tightly in cling film and put back in the cold.

How to freeze melon in syrup

To prepare the syrup, we need water and sugar in equal proportions. The total amount of products depends on the size of your melon. It is important that the liquid covers it completely. The syrup should be boiled and then cooled.

The berries are cut into pieces and placed in containers, approximately 2/3 of the volume. Fill everything with syrup so that it does not reach the very top of the mold.

Mistake #4: Melon is poured with hot syrup. The syrup should be as cold as possible, so before using it, you need to cool it in the main compartment of the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

See video from the “CookingTime” channel - Sorbet or Sorbet (ice cream) from Melon