Watermelon

Barely a recipe by modern standards, but it is a serving formula, and the details it does specify — cold, sound, ripe, six pieces, sugar apart — are the whole of it.

• "Powdered sugar"In American books of this period the term meant a fine-ground sugar, probably closer to modern caster sugar than to today's starch-cut confectioners' sugar. Either will do here; caster dissolves without the chalky note.
• Sugar served separatelySugar draws water out of cut melon, so slices sugared in the kitchen can reach the table sitting in pink juice. Passing it in a bowl avoids that, though the recipe does not say why.
• Cold means properly coldAn hour or two in the refrigerator is not enough to chill a whole melon through. Chill it overnight, or cut it and chill the pieces covered; cold melon is far more refreshing, though very low temperatures tend to mute perceived sweetness rather than increase it.
• "Medium" melonThe recipe does not define it, and the varieties grown when this was written often ran large. Six pieces from a whole melon are substantial wedges eaten with a spoon or fork, not the finger-sized batons of a modern fruit platter.
• Judging ripenessWatermelon does not ripen after picking, so a sound melon at the counter is the whole job. Look for a creamy yellow ground spot where it sat on the soil, a dull rather than glossy rind, and heaviness for its size.
• Cutting into sixHalve lengthwise, then cut each half into three long wedges. Even pieces matter here only because the dish is presentation: a large cold platter, the wedges laid out with the cut faces showing.
• Yield and holdingServes six. Cut melon should go back under refrigeration if it is standing more than a couple of hours; the flesh is a hospitable medium once the rind is breached.