Melon Ice

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Small saucepan
• •Blender
• •Fine-mesh sieve and flexible spatula
• •1-quart ice cream machine or 9-inch shallow metal pan
• •1-quart freezer-safe container

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the syrup

   Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Warm gently, stirring only until the sugar dissolves and the syrup turns perfectly clear, then let it simmer for one minute. Do not reduce it, because boiling away water changes the concentration that governs the finished texture. Cool completely, measure exactly 1 cup (240 ml / about 280 g) for the glace, and reserve the remainder for correcting the base.

2. 2

   Test the melon

   Cut the melon before doing anything else and smell it. The flesh should perfume the room and yield easily beneath a spoon, with no green hardness near the rind. If it smells faint, stop here. Syrup and orange-flower water can frame ripe melon, but they cannot manufacture its fragrance; use that fruit for breakfast and wait for a better one.

   A ripe Charentais melon is ideal, but a deeply fragrant cantaloupe is the honest substitute. Honeydew produces a paler, quieter glace and needs its own balance, so don't exchange it casually.
3. 3

   Mix and sieve

   Measure 1 cup of melon pulp into a blender. Add exactly 1 cup of the cold syrup, then the strained orange juice, lemon juice, and orange-flower water. Blend for about ten seconds, only until uniform, then rub the entire mixture through a fine-mesh sieve with a flexible spatula. Press until only coarse fibre remains. The blender removes labor; the sieve stays because it gives the frozen mixture its fine, clean texture.

4. 4

   Check the balance

   The source's final check is 22° on its syrup gauge. Syrup scales are not interchangeable, so use that figure only with a gauge calibrated to the book's scale. The measured light syrup and one-to-one volume ratio here are the household equivalent. To verify the balance without a gauge, freeze a tablespoon of base on a chilled saucer for ten minutes. It should turn softly slushy at the edge. If it freezes hard, stir one teaspoon of reserved syrup into the base and retest; if it remains wet and loose, stir in one teaspoon of cold water. Ça se rattrape.

   Make corrections teaspoon by teaspoon. Sugar controls softness with surprising authority, and a generous splash can carry the glace from firm to reluctant to freeze.
5. 5

   Chill the base

   Cover the strained mixture and chill it for at least two hours, until thoroughly cold. A cold base freezes quickly and forms finer crystals; a lukewarm one spends too long in the machine and becomes coarse. Stir once before churning because a little fruit pulp may settle.

6. 6

   Churn until fine

   Pour the cold base into a 1-quart ice cream machine and churn until thick, fine-grained, and able to hold a soft ridge, usually twenty to twenty-five minutes. If it remains liquid after fifteen minutes, stop and return the base to the refrigerator; refreeze the machine bowl completely before trying again. Continuing with a warm bowl only builds larger crystals.

   Without a machine, pour the base into a shallow metal pan and freeze it, scraping and beating it firmly with a fork every thirty minutes for about three hours. The texture will be coarser, but the fruit and balance remain true.
7. 7

   Set and serve

   Pack the churned glace into a chilled shallow container, press parchment directly against its surface, and freeze for two to three hours. Let it stand in the refrigerator for ten minutes before scooping. It should yield beneath the spoon and melt cleanly, with melon arriving first, citrus sharpening the middle, and orange flower lingering quietly. Serve in cold coupes. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Buy the melon with your nose. A heavy fruit and a yielding blossom end are useful signs, but fragrance is the verdict; if you can't smell it through the skin, this is not its evening.
• •Orange-flower water should smell fresh, floral, and faintly citrusy. Measure it. An extra spoonful doesn't make the glace more expressive; it makes ripe melon taste like soap.
• •The source protects texture with a 22° density reading. The fixed syrup concentration and measured fruit ratio bring a ripe melon close to that balance without asking you to own a syrup gauge, while the frozen-saucer test catches natural variation in the fruit.
• •For a picnic, freeze the glace firmly in a low insulated container and carry it surrounded by frozen packs. Keep the lid closed until dessert, then give it five to ten minutes to soften before scooping.

Advance Preparation

• •The light syrup can be prepared up to one week ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Measure it only after it is cold.
• •The sieved melon base can be refrigerated overnight before churning. Stir it well before it enters the machine.
• •Churn the glace two to four hours before serving for the finest texture. It keeps for about one week with parchment pressed against the surface, though the melon fragrance is most vivid on the first day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 117g)