Cantaloupe?

Has anyone tried to preserve cantaloupe? Or maybe freezing it? I even thought of mashing it up and then trying to preserve it.

Had froze it, but it was not as good as when you first cut it up and ate it.

I hate when someone asks a question on a forum, and someone answers, "No, I've never done X (whatever the question was) but I have done something else . . ." I always shout at my monitor -- "That's not answering the questions!!!!!!"

So, with that disclaimer, I have to admit that while I haven't tried preserving any form of melon, technically, I have rendered oil from it and used that in bait and lure because it will pretty much keep indefinitely.

Freeze it and let thaw a little and eat like a popsicle if not eaten half frozen it gets mushy

Yes it can, but I have never been able to keep it solid, always tunes to water. and it will mold up at least for me. I use fresh cantaloupe in one of my Groundhog baits.

Yeah this was strictly a bait question. While I don't dislike cantaloupe, I would definitely chose watermelon to eat before cantaloupe. Fresh cantaloupe is very appealing to a wide variety of animals in my area I just wanted to see if I could possibly preserve it to use as a bait when the season for them has passed. I used it in three cages to try and catch a ground hog in town that had taken up residence under a porch. I could see the hole but could get to it so I blocked off the area around the edge of the porch and set the cages on the openings. Came back the next day with a coon and a skunk. Both had to do some major squeezing to get to the cantaloupe and into the traps. Unless of course it was a communal den under there, which I doubt. How did you go about making your cantaloupe Jonesie? I figured to try it this way, remove the seeds and rind then puree the flesh, add sodium benzoate, maybe a little thickening powder and a mold inhibitor? Lazarus, how did you go about rending the oil out of it?

I tried it twice before for coon. One season fresh chunks in back of cages and down in dirtholes, another season I let it ferment a little then added vodka and used it like that.
Had much better luck in cold weather with it fermented and vodka added, but we had a high rate of both coon and possum catches that year in cages. I was looking for something not interesting to domestic cats and I can attest with my little experiment we caught zero cats that season on cantaloupe. I haven't tried preserving it with sodium benzoate though. We used vodka because it helped keep it from freezing and seemed to carry the fermented zing a little longer on cold nights.
Is that helpf?
Jim

There are a couple of ways you can do it. The easiest is to chop it up into chunks, then mash it until you've got a liquid. Then cook it for a while, stirring it. Once its cooked to kind of a mush, put it in a container and put it in the freezer. After about an hour, you'll see there is a thick layer on top of the mush -- that's the oil. Skim it off and put it in a container and trash the rest of it. It takes a little bit of experimenting but you can get some pretty good stuff.

The other thing you might try is mashing some melon to a pulp, and then adding just a little bit of preservative (sodium benzoate) and make Knox Blox by adding gelatin to the pulp. You'll have to keep them refrigerated but they would be easy to use in a cage trap or a DP.

jabNE, would the cheap 40 proof vodka work? Hate to use some good stuff just to catch critters. I'll give your recipe a go Lazarus. The second sounds pretty close to what I wanted to try.
P.S. Caught another skunk on the cantaloupe today. Also caught one in a dirt hole set I made for coyotes. It was stuck in the dirt hole I augered out and took some prodding to get him to finally stick his head out of the hole. I tried the heart lung/spine shot to put it down and it sprayed all over the place before giving up the ghost.

😁
Of course never use the good stuff.
I bought the cheapest crap I could find at Wally world (walmart). You know the stuff in the plastic bottle not glass, etc.

I do not use it by it's self but use it in a base that is a hay, so I do not try to keep it in paste form. But Can be thickened or gel if that is the intent What I do is scoop the fruit from the rind and place in a 5 gallon bucket fill 3/4. I mix salt for taste and attractant for the groundhogs, can be deleted, and SB into the batch. I add some everclear for faster preservation then I place 2 bags of sugar on top and cover with lid for end result as fresh smelling and tasting as I can keep it.. let set for 2 weeks in a very cool place and a refrigerator wouldn't hurt but not needed. move to warm area for 2 to 4 weeks depending on heat to make sure it is done and stopped. If I want fermentation or zing as I call it, fill bucket 3/4 put 2 bags of sugar on top and cover with lid, let it sit in a hot place for at least 6 weeks. once it is stops on it's own it will stay that way. the natural alcohol forms from the sugars. and will stabilize. I have never done it or even thought about it but I bet you could pull off the oil as Lazarus does as time in the sun at 80 to 100 degrees will be a form of slow cooking and the oils will separate and float. by the way coon and skunks love my hay based hog baits also LOL

By the way every ADC guy out there doing large contract work for coon skunks and groundhogs knows to find the mulberry trees, Everything flocks to them when the mulberries are falling and starting to ferment, They can't get enough of them, same with apples, peaches, persimmons and grapes.

Sounds like a good recipe Jonesie. Does the bucket need a bubble stone to allow gases to escape? Does it need to be protected from flies as well. Don't know where to get everclear around here, what's a good substitute?

if you can get 151 rum that is 3/4 ethanol

No and I think the natural alcohol build up would dissipate if there was a stone. As long as the lid is on tight I have never had a fly problem with fruits. but I have had a batch or 2 go bad because the lid was not on solid. I assume it was not able to build up the alcohol level it needed to preserve the batch. I have never tried 80 proof but may work if you increase the SB just in case. don't skimp on the sugar either. I use to use 5 pound bag but increased it to 2 bags when the bags went to 4 pounds. more sugar can't hurt.

Sounds good. I'll be putting this together today after I run some ADC jobs. Appreciate the information.

Would gin work in place of the everclear or 151 rum?

gin has all kinds of flavors added and not a real high ethanol content. enough gin would certainly prevent fermentation but its made with stuff like cedar berries and orange peelings for flavor. would have to try it and see if animals like it.

everclear is made from corn and milo and is about 99% ethanol.

Rum is made from fermented brown sugar and 151 doesn't have any flavor enhancers.

Vodka is just water and ethanol.

I would think so, I think any alcohol will work, as far as the purpose I use it. I put the everclear in because I want preservation as quick as I could get it. I thought of the worm in tequila. So tried it. The salt and sb along with the sugar are the real long term preservatives, The alcohol will dissipate over time. Remember the second process I talked about only uses sugar and the alcohol forms on it's own like Paul's wine.

As far as orange or cedar tastes in the gin Raccoon, flying squirrels, grey squirrels, opossum, and even skunks like likes orange. Red cedar berries I don't really know except it is used in teas and native American seasoning.

I used 1 gallon glass pickle jars and cut up 1.5 cantaloupes per jar, quart of gin per gallon and 2 pounds of sugar per gallon. I didn't add any salt, but used 1/2 cup of SB per gallon. I have a bug proof wooden box I made in my root cellar for storing glands, baits and lures. I generally stays about 10-15 degrees cooler in my root cellar than out side. Not sure if that's cool enough or not, but I'm pretty sure the wife won't let me use the fridge.

I would have gone the 1 cup sb I use powder, granular sb will take a little longer to start. but you should be ok. The gin will start to soak into the fruit being in the cellar the fruit should continue to ripen for a day or two before it starts to break down.

I can always add more SB if you think its necessary. I have the powder as well. Bought a gallon as I plan to put up some fresh ground hog bait as soon as I catch a couple more.