No. 799

Muskmelon and Cantaloupe

Melon Vert Maraicher et Cantaloup

The cantaloupe melon is certainly the finest and best; if good the fruit is a handsome orange-red, the sides very prominent and covered with a rough exterior coat. The muskmelon outside is green, covered with a rough gray rind, the inside of a green and yellow color. To serve either one or the other, set them in a cool place for at least twelve hours before using them, have them very cold and cut either in halves or slices, and lay them on top of a grape leaf or any other kind. Do not serve the side that laid on the ground. They are eaten plain, seasoned with salt and pepper, or else sugar.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Barely a recipe and entirely a matter of judgment: the work is all in choosing the fruit, chilling it properly, and cutting it well. A few of Ranhofer's terms and assumptions need translating.

What the two melons actually areBoth are forms of Cucumis melo. The "melon vert maraicher" is the market-gardener's green-fleshed melon of French kitchen gardens; what an American market sells as cantaloupe is the netted muskmelon Ranhofer describes second — though note that he calls its flesh green and yellow, not orange. The true European cantaloupe he praises, with prominent sides and a rough coat, survives in melons of the Charentais and Cavaillon type.
Twelve hours in a cool placeThat timing suggests an icebox or cellar rather than a modern refrigerator. A whole melon needs several hours in the refrigerator to be cold all the way through, and very long chilling flattens the aroma, since cold suppresses the volatile compounds that make ripe melon smell like melon. Chill it whole, cut it just before serving.
The side that lay on the groundThis is the ground spot, the pale flattened patch where the fruit rested. Ranhofer says only that it should not be served; the colour of that patch — creamy yellow rather than white or green — is also one cue to ripeness, the fruit having stayed on the vine long enough.
Wash the rind before cuttingThe one modern addition that matters. Netted melon rind is rough enough to hold soil bacteria, and the knife carries whatever is on the outside straight into the flesh. Scrub under running water and dry before halving or slicing.
Cut melon does not keepRefrigerate any cut fruit within two hours and use it inside three or four days. Melon flesh is low in acid and high in moisture, which is exactly what spoilage organisms want.
The grape leafPurely a plate liner. Use a young leaf, rinsed; older leaves are tough and dusty. Ranhofer himself allows "any other kind" of leaf, and a cold plate does the job as well.
SeasoningSalt and pepper is not eccentric; salt sharpens perceived sweetness and a little black pepper picks up the musky top notes. Ranhofer offers sugar simply as the alternative. Ginger, lime, or a slice of cured ham belong to the same family of seasonings.
YieldNo quantity is given. Reckon half a small melon or a thick wedge per person as a first or side course, or a whole Charentais split between two.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer wrote The Epicurean (1894) out of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book's "Cold Side Dishes" chapter is essentially the hors d'oeuvre tray of a formal American-French menu: olives, radishes, smoked mackerel, anchovies, and melon, set out to be picked at in the early courses. Serving melon at the head of a meal rather than at the end is the French habit, and it sat oddly enough with American diners, for whom melon was also a breakfast fruit. Ranhofer's preference for the ribbed, warty European cantaloupe over the netted muskmelon reflects the market of his day; the rise of the netted orange-fleshed melon in American commerce is often credited to the Rocky Ford district of Colorado, though the swapping of the two names in ordinary speech is an older and more diffuse confusion.