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Citron watermelon (AKA Pie Melon, Tsamma, and Colorado Preserving Melon) is said to be useful for making pies, preserves, jam, pickles and such. It is not used for fresh eating, typically, and is hard all the way through even when ripe. The interior is supposed to be high in pectin. (I believe Tsamma sometimes refers to a similar kind of melon that may have different properties, FYI.)

I grew one plant that got 9+ melons (the Red-seeded type from Baker Creek). So, I'm wanting to know how to make them into pie, since it sounds fascinating, and I love pie. How do you make pie with the inside of the fruit? I know there are recipes for watermelon rind pie floating around there, and those may work with these rinds, too, but it's mostly the interior that I'm concerned about. If your response involves both the interior and the rind, that's fine.

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...NadjaCS seems to have already answered this question above, but here's a link to a website which explicitly gives a recipe for a pie-melon pie using diced and flavored pie melon. It also has a link to an antique recipe for what appears to be candied pie melon slices; I'm sure you could use those slices in place of the base for some other fruit pie.

https://ganga108.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/pie/

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    Thanks! I'm out of them now (they sure kept for a really long time, though). The best way to eat them that I discovered was to cut them into pieces while raw, and stir fry them with other stuff (you'd probably want rice, too). They taste like water chestnuts this way. I have seeds; so, I'll probably grow them again. It should be noted that other kinds of fruits are also sometimes called Pie Melon (e.g. Cucurbita ficifolia, a squash, and Mother Mary's Pie Melon, which is a muskmelon), but it's good that you link mentioned specifies that this is about Citron melons.
    – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
    Commented Aug 11, 2017 at 4:53
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    @Shule: Ha! I knew I wasn't crazy; my favorite way to cook chicken breasts is to simmer them in a pan with melon slices, the whole mess liberally spiced and then glazed with whatever rustic syrup I have on hand (sumac, elderflower, etc.).
    – Jacob Stai
    Commented Aug 22, 2017 at 22:25

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