Meet Melogold Grapefruit (and a 5-Minute No-Churn Grapefruit Gelato Recipe)

Meet the latest rock star in the produce department – Melogold Grapefruit, a large, sometimes greenish yellow-skinned citrus that could be president of the grapefruit class. Big and handsome? Sweet?  Good for you? Plays well with other fruits? Check, check, check and check!

A cross between a pummelo and a white grapefruit, this one has skin much thicker than a regular grapefruit, is nearly seedless, and extremely juicy and sweet. How sweet? So sweet you won’t need to add any sugar, even if you are a sugar-sprinkling grapefruit eater. (I’m not, but my husband is, and even he conceded that this baby needed no additional sweetener.)

My man-cub, 9, ate some and said, ‘Wow, that is the most grapefruity grapefruit ever! It’s SWEET!” This is a boy who, while eating his breakfast cereal, hugs the sugar bowl as if it were his best friend, so that’s a measure of how sweet this fruit is.

Developed in the 1980s at that citrus incubator UC Riverside, Melogolds are grown in California’s Central Valleyand are officially a cousin to an Oro Blanco, another sweet hybrid grapefruit.  They have a short season – January/February/March, so get them when you see them.

They got their name from mellow flavor (low acid) = Melo, and gold for the deeper color of the rind than Oroblanco, so Melogold. The fruit is pale yellow, and you can either eat it on its own, or toss into a fruit salad.

With the history and accolades out of the way, we settled down to peel and eat one. Honestly, it’s so large that 2-4 normal people can share one, depending on appetites. At my abnormal house, each kid ate an entire 1 ¼-pound fruit. (I’m not complaining.)

Here’s a brief tutorial on how to peel and prepare them for a lovely looking presentation.

Melogolds are easy to peel by hand. They have a substantial pith.

The peel is very thick!

Separate the segments by hand.

The membrane covering each segment peels off easily by hand.

A whole Melogold will leave you with a handful of membrane to discard.

Place each peeled segment on a plate in a pretty pattern.

Eat out of hand. (Glittery nails optional!)

I also ran across a super easy recipe for a Grapefruit Gelato, a sweet, tangy, custardy dessert that I figured would highlight the great flavor of Melogolds. While honestly this sweet wasn’t universally loved at my house, I think it is terrific and fun, and since my vote counts triple, I’m sharing it with you today!  If you adore grapefruit, trust me, you’ll like this. And the two at my house who didn’t love it initially have been caught sneaking tastes of it after dinner, so there.

Disclosure: Melissa’s Produce  provided samples of the citrus mentioned in this article. There was no expectation or requirement of endorsement. My opinions, as always, are my own. 

Tagged as: cream, gelato, grapefruit, grapefruit juice, homemade ice cream, ice cream, kosher salt, Melissa's Produce, Melogold grapefruit, sugar