Watermelon Jerky

Ever wonder what dehydrated watermelon is like? Watermelon jerky is a great way to experience a condensed watermelon flavor, and is a great healthy snack!

For this recipe I used:

• 2 watermelons
• sea salt

Yup, thats it! This snack is super sweet, and treat that disappears quickly!

Step 1: Tools Needed!

For this instructable I used the following kitchen tools:

• A dehydrator, with non-stick sheets, and a timer that shuts the dehydrator off when it's done
• A large sharp knife for chopping
• A good little paring knife for carving off rinds

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Step 2: Cut the Watermelon

Everyone has a different approach to slicing a watermelon. I like to cut off one of the ends and then stand it up on its end, and start quartering the melon.

I cut it in half, then those halves in half - then make 1" slices.

The small pieces can get a little toasted in the dehydrator, so you may need to discard your ends.

Step 3: Remove the Rind, Put on the Trays.

Take the rind of with a nice paring knife, and then use the chopping knife to get slices down to about 1/4" thick.

After they were on the trays, I decided to salt about 1/2 of the the watermelon I sliced up. Salted watermelon was one of my favorite treats as a kid, and I wanted to see what it would taste like once it turned into jerky.

Step 4: Put in the Dehydrator

Each dehydrator is different. I used an Excalibur Dehydrator Model D900SHD, it has 9 trays, and is wicked awesome. I set it to dehydrate the Watermelon for 18 hours at 135ºF.

Try and time it so you can get a good nap in, and dream of great watermelon flavor.

Step 5: Remove and Serve!

The watermelon is ready to be removed from the trays if they separate without sticking. If you have some that are still sticking to the trays, let them go for another few hours.

I separated the melon I had salted, from the sweet stuff - and put it to a taste test. The results came back 50/50 as to which one was better. I liked the salted melon a lot, because the unsalted melon was a bit too sweet.

Experiment with your own flavors, like chile and lime juice! Yum!!!