Melon makes an excellent hors-d’œuvre for summer luncheons. It should be just ripe, and have a nice perfume. Serve it as fresh as possible.
[361—ENGLISH MELONS]
The English variety of melons is inferior in quality to the French.
Their shape is oval, their peel is yellow, thin, and smooth, and their pulp, which is white, more nearly resembles the water-melon than the melon in flavour.
[362—MELON WITH PORT, MARSALA, OR SHERRY, &c.]
Select a Cantaloup or other melon of the same kind as the former, and let it be just ripe. Make a round incision about the stalk, three inches in diameter; withdraw the plug thus cut, and through the resulting hole thoroughly remove all the pips by means of a silver spoon.
Now pour one-half pint of best Port, Marsala, or Sherry into the melon, replace the plug, and keep the melon for two or three hours in a cooler surrounded by broken ice. Do not cut the melon into slices when serving it. It should be taken to the table, whole, and then the piece containing the stalk is withdrawn and the fruit is cut into shell-like slices with a silver spoon, and served with a little of the accompanying wine upon iced plates.
[363—VARIOUS MELONS]
France produces a large variety of melons, of which the principal kinds are the Sucrins of Tours, the St. Laud melon, the black melons of the Carmes, &c. They are all excellent, and are served like the Cantaloups.