Yes, Carl, I have heard of watermelon jerky and I can assure you that it is indeed a real thing. To make it, you take thinly sliced pieces of watermelon and dry them in a dehydrator for about 12 hours, just like you would with any other fruit or meat.
On the surface, it sounds strange. After all, watermelon is 92 percent water, so you’d think that removing that water would result in some kind of weird, barely edible nugget made up of whatever the other eight percent of watermelon is, but that’s not entirely true.
I’ve been lucky enough to sample watermelon jerky on a few occasions, and I can tell you with certainty that it’s delicious. The dehydration process does remove much of the water, but it leaves behind the good stuff – mainly the watermelon taste and sweetness. The result is a chewy, candylike snack that’s intensely sweet and flavorful.
I don’t own a dehydrator, but if I did, I’d be making watermelon jerky at this very moment. I’d probably try to dehydrate all sort of other things, including bananas, tomatoes, chocolate cake and lasagna, so that’s probably why my wife still hasn’t purchased a dehydrator as a gift for me. Should I take matters into my own hands and buy one for myself? Yes, I think I should.