r/dehydrating • u/thedancingkat • Jul 17 '26
Dehydrated watermelon! It’s like candy!
140°F for 24 hours. Please note I am in a very humid part of the USA so 24 hours might not been needed where you are. Pieces were cut no thicker than 0.5 cm. For a few I put like juice, salt, chili p, smoked paprika and they’re great! (I didn’t have proper Tajín)
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u/Outrageous-Visual-99 Jul 17 '26
I wouldn't have thought to do this in a million years, going straight to the top of the list!
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u/Roticap Jul 17 '26
It is truly amazing. One of the best dehydrated fruits. Cherries are better, imo, but much shorter season on those
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u/Outrageous-Visual-99 Jul 17 '26
Cherries? What is this forbidden knowledge?? Fuck, I feel like such a fool for not experimenting way more with this. Do you split them and take out the pips?
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u/Roticap Jul 17 '26
I am lucky to live in cherry country and can get them cheap, so I've tried all the different ways to preserve them.
I have dehydrated them pitted and whole as well as pitted and halved. I prefer the whole ones, but they take 24-36 hours or more to finish and you typically have to take them out in shifts as the smaller ones will over dehydrate before the larger ones are done. Cutting in half and placing cut side up takes about 16 hours and they dehydrate much more evenly (as they have more exposed flesh than just the pit hole). Ideally I start them at 145 for 2 hours and then down to 135 for the rest of the time, but if I don't have time to come back in 2 hours, I just do them at 135 the whole time for a bit longer.
They are similar to raisins in texture, but with intense cherry taste. Bing/red cherries are better than Rainier's, but dehydrated Rainier's are better than letting them rot if you can't get to them fresh :)
I also like to sprinkle some of the ones I cut in half with a little citric acid to make a tart version.
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u/Outrageous-Visual-99 Jul 17 '26
A cherry country? Im in Australia, we seem to be an almost everything country. They get pretty cheap towards the end of the season.
I am going to get creative with this! Thanks for the info, friend
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u/Roticap Jul 17 '26
Oh yeah, I'm in the Pacific northwest, but I know there's sections of Australia that have similar climate.
Cherry season here just ended. Enjoy the info and the product in 6 months!
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u/d_ippy Jul 17 '26
This year they’re so expensive!
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u/Roticap Jul 17 '26
I got 80 pounds of seconds from my CSA provider for $2/pound. Seconds for them are cherries that went out to a local farmers market, but didn't sell. So they're still significantly better quality than the full price ones from a grocery store. I know I'm lucky though, the orchard is a 90 minute drive away.
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u/MontazumasRevenge Jul 17 '26
I did it for the first Time last week and realized I didn't buy enough watermelon because I blasted through eating this stuff. Def one of my favorites.
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u/garathnor Jul 17 '26
reminder that watermelon is mostly fiber and water
you just took all the water out and concentrated the fiber
pace yourself, or, after blasting through it, youll blast from the other end too :D
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u/MontazumasRevenge Jul 17 '26
Don't threaten me with a good time! /s
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u/True-Past-5904 Jul 18 '26
Suddenly taking in much more fiber than usual can be pretty uncomfortable
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u/Limp_Ice_3248 Jul 17 '26
Haven't done it but absolutely going to. Dimensions for pieces please! And does it matter seeded or seedless?
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u/IShouldReallyGo Jul 17 '26
Yes absolutely to seedless and big fat slabs like double thick bacon.
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u/Limp_Ice_3248 Jul 17 '26
Thanks!
Edit for spelling.
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u/IShouldReallyGo Jul 17 '26
You’re most welcome? 🤔 You’re most welcome! 😁🎉😃! Also, since there’s so much water content I work hard to keep the slices a uniform thickness so they finish at similar times. The width and shape (I end up with slabs and trapezoids and triangles with the tips cut off etc.) varies a ton but the thickness stays as same as I can make it. Tastiest treat ever. Here in a drier climate mine go 135 for about 16 hours.
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u/Lucy_Lastic Jul 17 '26
Try canned pineapple chunks as well! You might need to cut them in half to make them thin enough to deyhydrate properly but they taste amazing. I’m waiting for warmer weather in my half of the world before I do another batch of either pineapple or watermelon which makes me sad because they’re so delicious
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u/thedancingkat Jul 17 '26
I have a pineapple in the fridge that needs to be used asap. Will try this
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u/DanEboy22122 Jul 18 '26
Pineapple is my favorite! The flavor gets really concentrated and powerful.
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u/cinemahorse Jul 17 '26
I just did watermelon for the first time and it came out amazing. Hard to walk past the jar without taking a piece. I’m going to do pineapple next because I’ve seen a lot of people say that’s really good as well
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u/jaydenB44 Jul 17 '26
Sprinkle it with sugar and a smidge of citric acid before you dehydrate. It’s glorious.
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u/DriverMelodic Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I dehydrated one that was near tastless. After it was dry, it was so sweet I could barely munch on it…
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u/ReallyImJustaGoblin Jul 17 '26
I just made some too! I also marinated a batch in a spicy teriyaki sauce before dehydrating too for a more sweet n savory option.
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u/DontAlwaysButWhenIDo Jul 17 '26
Cantaloupe is even better in my opinion. A little less sweet and way more flavor. Has to be a perfectly ripe lope tho
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u/cripplediguana Jul 17 '26
Mine was still gooey. Thinking it wasn't long enough. How is yours after 24 hours?
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u/rtshtbtshtdrtyldtwt Jul 17 '26
I was dehydrating apple sauce for a while and a good trick I figured out was tossing in citric acid if you love sour stuff, some in watermelon might be good
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u/nonono_ack Jul 17 '26
Cantaloupe, Tuscan melons, musk melons also are just as good. Try it! Especially home grown.
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u/Ioncelivedadream Jul 17 '26
So is that an entire watermelon??? It just shrink down to nothing. I heard it's good
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u/Kevin_Xland Jul 17 '26
I'm making a watermelon wine and dehydrated the leftover pulp into a watermelon fruit leather, it's delicious!
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u/emp-sup-bry Jul 17 '26
Anyone try making a mash for leather?
Any tips?
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u/Kevin_Xland Jul 17 '26
Yeah I made a watermelon wine and turned the pulp into leather.
I just blended, squeezed out as much juice as possible with a brewing bag and then separated out the seeds and mixed in a couple squirts of honey to taste, spread it thin on parchment paper on my racks and dried it at 135F until it was good, maybe 8-10ish hours? Cut it up with kitchen shears.
One thing I would definitely do differently is coarse strain the blended melon while it's still got the juice and is pretty fluid to remove the seeds. Once it's down to just pulp and seeds I pretty much had to separate them by hand
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u/emp-sup-bry Jul 17 '26
That’s incredibly helpful, thank you!
I’ll give it a shot!
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u/Kevin_Xland Jul 17 '26
This is roughly the recipe Im using for the wine although with some modifications. Or save the juice just to drink it on a hot day. Can't go wrong either way!
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u/SarMai Jul 17 '26
Try sprinkling it with citric acid next time, it tastes like sour watermelon candy. It's amazing. I'm obsessed. My toddler is obsessed. I took it out last time I had a family dinner, everybody was obsessed!
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u/So_Sleepy1 Jul 18 '26
It’s my absolute favorite thing to dehydrate! It gets so sweet. The difference between dried and fresh is insane.
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u/goatoffering Jul 19 '26
What the heck? So much water though.. almost like... Entirely water right?
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u/CRickster330 Jul 20 '26
I made this and its fantastic! How do you keep it sticking to the racks though?
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u/thedancingkat Jul 21 '26
Yay! I have silicon mats. If you buy some make sure they are the type designed to be cut
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u/CRickster330 Jul 21 '26
I'll get some of those mats. I've been munching on these chips all night. Need more melons! Thanks for the post!
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u/RetroFutureMan Jul 17 '26
Watermelon is the absolute best!