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How to 'skin' a watermelon for a super-easy party trick

Rober's "skinned" watermelon
Former NASA engineer Mark Rober's "skinned" cut watermelon this recipe hack. Mark Rober/YouTube

Some fruits, like oranges and bananas, are easier to peel than others. But as it turns out, it's pretty simple to cut and skin a watermelon, too with this recipe hack.

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Former NASA engineer Mark Rober loves to post food hacks and tricks to his YouTube channel Creativity Design Science, and recently designed a way to make it appear as though you actually skinned a watermelon, first spotted on Digg.

Here's how he did it. First, Rober started with two watermelons of similar shapes and sizes:

two similar watermelons
Mark Rober/YouTube

He then made a bunch of shallow cuts in one watermelon until there was no green rind left:

Next, he trimmed off all the edges to make it look a little more uniform:

Though Rober said by this point the watermelon looked OK, he wanted to make it appear absolutely smooth so there was no evidence of his handiwork. He took some new dish scrubbing pads — Rober used Scotch-Brite Scour Pads — and wiped off all the edges.

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Rober compares it to using sandpaper on smooth wood:

After creating the smooth interior for his trick, Rober halved the second watermelon to make the fake rind. After cutting it in half, you can gut the watermelon using whichever method you prefer and carve out both halves:

The end product looks pretty awesome. Plus, Rober said you can put the watermelon "back together" and impress your guests by taking it apart. And if you want to eat it, there will be no rind to clean up later, too:

This is not Rober’s first watermelon hack post. Last September, he created a super-easy smoothie recipe using a watermelon, a coat hanger, a screw driver, and a plastic cup. The video has been viewed more than 5.5 million times.

To see more of Mark Rober's videos, check out his YouTube channel.

YouTube NASA
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