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Nutmeg Baskets
Tie a string around the melons that the halves may be plainly marked to the eye, then from one end cut a strip (both ways) an inch wide and reaching to the string. Remove the side sections and from the baskets thus formed take seeds and "threads." Also cut the sweet pulp carefully so that it will be in dainty bits. Set the baskets and pulp, separately, on ice, and when ready to serve them fill the hollows with the pulp, and sprinkle with sugar, salt, or lemon juice as desired. Or, first treat with wine, as above, or use the Turkish flavouring on the cut cubes: two tablespoons of brandy, one of ginger, and pinch of salt and pepper.
This is a presentation recipe rather than a cooked one: a small melon is carved into two handled baskets, the flesh cubed, chilled separately, and reassembled at the table. Nearly all of the work is in the cutting.
- What a nutmeg melon isAn old netted-rind muskmelon variety, small and round with heavy netting. A small cantaloupe or a Charentais is the closest thing on a modern counter; avoid anything much larger, or the baskets will be too heavy to hold their shape.
- Reading the cutting instructionsThe string marks the equator. You cut down to that line on both sides of the stem axis, removing two side wedges and leaving a strip an inch wide arching over the top as a handle. Halve through the string line and you have two baskets, each with its own handle.
- Cut before you scoopScore the rind with the tip of a knife along your marked lines first, then cut through. Once the seed cavity is open the shell flexes and the handle snaps easily.
- "Threads"The stringy fibres clinging to the seed mass. Scrape them out with a spoon; they hold moisture and will weep into the basket.
- Chill separately, and mean itSugar or salt draws juice out of melon within minutes. Keep the cubes in a covered bowl and fill the baskets only as they go to the table, or you will serve two shells sitting in syrup.
- "Treat with wine, as above"A back-reference to an earlier melon preparation in the book, presumably one in which the cut flesh is steeped in wine. The recipe does not say which wine; a sweet white, sherry or Madeira would suit.
- The Turkish flavouringTwo tablespoons brandy and one of ginger is enough for the flesh of one small melon, roughly two cups of cubes. The ginger is almost certainly grated fresh or chopped preserved ginger with its syrup — a full tablespoon of dried ground ginger would be overpowering. Add the pepper with restraint; a few grinds is the intent.
- YieldOne small melon gives two baskets, so two servings. Figure one melon per pair of diners, and it is worth cutting a spare in case a shell cracks.
The "nutmeg" melon was a standard nineteenth-century American market name for a small netted muskmelon, the name often said to derive from a rounded, closely veined rind resembling a nutmeg, though that derivation is folk etymology rather than documented fact; seed catalogues of the period listed it alongside the Jenny Lind and the Montreal Market. Melon at this date might appear at either end of the meal, and the seasonings offered here run to salt, pepper and brandy as readily as to sugar, as in melon with prosciutto. The carved basket belongs to a broader Victorian and Edwardian enthusiasm for fruit presented as tableware: orange baskets, apple cups, pineapple shells refilled with their own flesh. The "Turkish flavouring" label is the loose orientalism of the period rather than a documented Ottoman preparation, though brandy, ginger and a pinch of pepper on cold melon is a genuinely good combination whatever it is called.