No. 3591

Cantaloup in Surprise and Cantaloup Molded

Cantaloup en Surprise et Cantaloup Moule

In Surprise.-Take a handsome, fresh and very ripe cantaloup melon, make an opening on the top two and a half inches below the stalk, and on the bias, directing the tip of the knife toward the center; suppress all the ripe pulp from the inside, put back the cover and imbed this rind in salted ice. With the removed pulp make a melon water ice (No. 3603), color with a little red and yellow carmine to imitate the orange color of a cantaloup melon; with this fill the rind to represent the original melon, return it to the ice and freeze for two hours. When well congealed it can be cut in slices; make the seeds of almond paste (No. 3623). A macedoine of fresh fruits with champagne and lemon water ice can also be substituted for the melon ice.

Molded.-Melons may be molded in lead molds, having the shape of a melon, making the rind either of vanilla (No. 3458) or pistachio (No. 3454) and the center of orange water ice (No. 3605) or pineapple water ice (No. 3606); pack in ice and freeze for two hours. Unmold and dress either on a water socle or folded napkin and on top of the melon range an artificial stalk and leaves.

← No. 3590 Bacchus Molded Ices & Large Pieces No. 3592 Delicious with Hazel-Nuts →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer assumes a working pastry department: numbered cross-references to other ices, a supply of rock salt and block ice, and a cupboard of metal moulds. Two elements of the second half of the entry are the problem, and one of them is not negotiable.

Lead mouldsThe molded version calls for melon-shaped moulds of lead; ice moulds of this period were commonly pewter or other lead-bearing tin alloys, which take a sharp impression cheaply. Lead leaches into cold, acidic contents such as orange or pineapple water ice, and there is no safe level of dietary lead. Antique lead and lead-heavy pewter ice moulds turn up in shops and should be treated as decoration only, never as food vessels.
Red and yellow carmine"Carmine" properly means the cochineal-derived red, but by the 1890s coal-tar colours were also on sale for confectionery work, and some period dyes are no longer permitted in food; what Ranhofer meant by "yellow carmine" cannot be identified with confidence. Any coloured version should rely on a current, approved food colour rather than something bought as "carmine."
What the numbers meanNothing here is self-contained. No. 3603 is his melon water ice, No. 3623 the almond paste, 3458 and 3454 the vanilla and pistachio preparations used for the rind, 3605 and 3606 the orange and pineapple water ices. Without those pages the entry is an assembly diagram, not a recipe.
Freezing without a machine"Imbed in salted ice" and "pack in ice" mean a bath of crushed ice and coarse salt, roughly three parts ice to one of salt by volume, which holds well below the freezing point of water. A modern freezer set at 0F does the same work for the filled melon shell; the two hours he gives assumes the far faster heat transfer of the salt bath.
The hinge: fill a chilled shellThe rind must be scraped clean of soft pulp and thoroughly cold before the ice goes in, or the ice melts at the wall and the slices fall apart when cut. Return it to the cold immediately after filling.
SlicingCut it straight from the cold with a knife dipped in hot water and wiped, in wedges through the stem axis so each portion shows rind, ice and almond-paste seeds. A ripe cantaloupe of this kind should give roughly six to eight wedges.
Water socleA socle is a moulded or carved block of ice used as a plinth, which large hotel kitchens kept on hand and almost no one does now. A folded napkin, which he offers as the alternative, is the practical choice; a chilled shallow bowl works as well.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this entry belongs to the part of the book that is really about spectacle: ices dressed as the fruit they were made from, served from ice plinths at banquets where the cold course was expected to be looked at before it was eaten. Fruit "en surprise" -- a hollowed rind or shell refilled with ice or sorbet -- is generally traced to French service of the earlier nineteenth century and remains familiar as the lemon or orange sorbet served in its own skin. The cantaloupe itself takes its name from Cantalupo, an estate near Rome where the melon is traditionally said to have been grown for the papal table, and by Ranhofer's day American market gardeners were supplying netted melons in quantity to eastern cities. That commercial abundance, plus the ice trade that kept restaurant cellars stocked with sawdust-packed block ice, is what made a two-hour freeze inside a melon rind an ordinary item on a printed menu rather than a marvel.