Honeydew

A whole honeydew keeps several days on the counter to finish ripening, then about 2 weeks refrigerated. Cut honeydew must be refrigerated and keeps 3–4 days.

Wash the rind before cutting, as with any melon.

Honeydew is picked less ripe than most melons and genuinely improves on the counter for a few days. A ripe one has a slightly waxy or tacky feel to the rind rather than a smooth polished one, gives slightly at the blossom end, and has a creamy rather than greenish-white color.

Store cut honeydew in a covered container. It is less aromatic than cantaloupe and less likely to scent the fridge, but it absorbs other odors readily.

Frozen honeydew chunks work in smoothies but collapse in texture.

Honeydew has a smooth, hard rind rather than cantaloupe's netted one, and that is a meaningful advantage: there are far fewer crevices for bacteria to lodge in and the surface can actually be washed effectively.

But the underlying risk structure is the same. Melons grow on soil, the rind can carry Salmonella and Listeria, and the flesh inside — high in moisture and sugar, with a pH around 6.0–6.7, the least acidic of the common melons — is an excellent bacterial growth medium. A knife drawn through an unwashed rind transfers contamination directly into it.

Cut honeydew is therefore a potentially hazardous food requiring refrigeration, the same as cantaloupe and watermelon.

Honeydew is mildly climacteric, continuing to soften and sweeten somewhat after harvest, which is why counter ripening helps — unlike watermelon, which does not improve at all after picking.

For quality: an underripe honeydew is hard, pale green-white, and bland, and will improve on the counter. An over-ripe one is soft all over with a slightly fermented smell.

Discard on mold at the stem scar, soft sunken lesions, flesh that has gone slimy or translucent, and any sour or alcoholic smell.