Chef Juliette
Bavaroise
Bavaroise turns the ribbon stage into a drink: yolks and sugar, boiling tea and milk, and Kirsch whisked into a light crown of foam. Keep the whisk moving, and the café comes home.
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Melonade
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2941, Melonade, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Melonade captures ripe melon in hot syrup, then wakes it with cold seltzer and a last breath of orange-flower water, a make-ahead refresher whose finest perfume arrives only at the table.
Beverages
French
Outdoor Dining
Picnic
Make Ahead
20 min
Active Time
5 min cook•2 hr 45 min total
YieldAbout 6¼ cups (1.5 liters; 6 servings)
Melonade (sparkling melon refresher) teaches a quiet rule of cold drinks: extract the fruit while the syrup is hot, but protect the perfume once everything is cold. Before heating anything, know the one true thing that decides this drink. Orange-flower water goes in at the last possible moment because its fragrance flees under heat and fades while standing.
The original recipe assumed a sugar boiler with a saccharometer, a woollen filtering bag, and service ice clean enough to drop directly into the pitcher. For six generous glasses, 250 grams of sugar dissolved in 420 grams of water closely reproduces the required 20° Baumé syrup; damp muslin replaces the woollen bag, and measured seltzer brings the strained drink near the final 9° without a special instrument. Those tools were brigade scaffolding, and they can go. The two-hour infusion, careful straining, final twenty-minute chill, and last-second floral finish are the dish, and they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
The finished Melonade should be translucent peach-gold, lightly sparkling, and fragrant without tasting like perfume. Its sweetness arrives first, then clears cleanly as the seltzer crosses the tongue. Give the infusion its full two hours, but guard the orange-flower water until the pitcher is ready to pour.
Melonade belongs naturally to the summer refreshment table of Provence and the Mediterranean South, where fragrant melons and orange-flower water share the warm-weather larder. In the classical beverage repertoire, the household drink passed through confectioner's discipline: syrup was measured in degrees Baumé, fruit pulp filtered through cloth, and the final preparation corrected with charged water. Despite its placement among lemonades in many collections, this formula contains no lemon; melon supplies the fruit, while seltzer and the late floral finish provide lift.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
just-ripe aromatic muskmelon pulp
Quantity
About 3 cups (720 ml / 454 g)
seeded, peeled, and cut into chunks
granulated sugar
Quantity
1¼ cups (300 ml / 250 g)
filtered water
Quantity
1¾ cups (420 ml / 420 g)
large clear ice cube made from filtered water
Quantity
1 cube, about ¼ cup (60 ml / 60 g)
very cold plain seltzer water
Quantity
2½ cups (600 ml / 600 g), plus up to ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) as needed
food-grade orange-flower water
Quantity
2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| just-ripe aromatic muskmelon pulpseeded, peeled, and cut into chunks | About 3 cups (720 ml / 454 g) |
| granulated sugar | 1¼ cups (300 ml / 250 g) |
| filtered water | 1¾ cups (420 ml / 420 g) |
| large clear ice cube made from filtered water | 1 cube, about ¼ cup (60 ml / 60 g) |
| very cold plain seltzer water | 2½ cups (600 ml / 600 g), plus up to ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g) as needed |
| food-grade orange-flower water | 2 tablespoons (30 ml / 30 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •Digital kitchen scale
- •Medium saucepan
- •Fine-mesh sieve and flexible spatula
- •Clean muslin or tightly woven cheesecloth
- •Large nonreactive bowl and 2-liter glass pitcher
Instructions
- 1
Sieve the melon
Weigh the melon after removing its rind and seeds. Rub the pulp through a fine-mesh sieve into a large heatproof bowl, pressing with a flexible spatula until only coarse fibres remain. This first sieving follows the original method and gives the hot syrup intimate contact with the fruit without whipping air into it.
- 2
Boil the syrup
Combine the sugar and filtered water in a medium saucepan. Heat gently, stirring only until the sugar dissolves, then bring the syrup to a full boil and remove it from the heat at once. This measured ratio is the home equivalent of syrup at 20° Baumé. Do not reduce it into a thick syrup; if it boiled hard for several minutes and has tightened, ça se rattrape: stir in 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) filtered water and bring it just back to the boil.
- 3
Infuse two hours
Immediately pour the boiling syrup over the sieved melon and stir slowly until the pulp is evenly dispersed. Cover the bowl and let it cool for about 30 minutes, then refrigerate it for the remainder of a full two-hour infusion. The hot syrup draws out the melon's fragrance; the uninterrupted two hours are the foundation of the drink, not waiting time to be cut short.
- 4
Strain through muslin
Dampen a square of clean muslin or tightly woven cheesecloth with cold water, squeeze it nearly dry, and use it to line a fine-mesh sieve set over a cold pitcher. Pour in the infused melon mixture and let it drain under its own weight, pressing very gently only at the end. Wringing the cloth forces fine pulp through and clouds the drink. If that happens, ça se rattrape: rinse the cloth, fold it into a double layer, and pass the liquid through once more.
- 5
Dilute and chill
Add the large ice cube to the pitcher, then pour in 2½ cups (600 ml / 600 g) of cold seltzer slowly down the side so its bubbles remain lively. Stir once or twice. A syrup hydrometer would place the drink near the required 9° Baumé; without one, taste it well chilled. It should feel lightly rounded on the tongue but finish clean, not syrupy. If it remains heavy, add more seltzer a few tablespoons at a time, up to ½ cup (120 ml / 120 g). Refrigerate for exactly 20 minutes.
- 6
Finish at serving
Only when the glasses are ready, add the orange-flower water and fold it through with one gentle turn of a long spoon. Do not add it to the hot infusion or during the long chill; its volatile perfume is the final lift, and warmth sends it away. Pour the Melonade immediately into cold tumblers, dividing the remaining ice as it falls. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose a fragrant muskmelon that yields slightly at the blossom end but still cuts cleanly. Overripe flesh gives muddy sweetness and clogs the cloth; the original asks for just-ripe melon for good reason.
- •Orange-flower water must be food-grade and freshly fragrant. Measure it carefully, keep it cold, and close the bottle at once. It belongs in the pitcher only when serving begins.
- •Use plain seltzer with lively carbonation. Club soda brings mineral salts and tonic brings bitterness; neither gives the clean dilution this preparation needs.
- •For a picnic, carry the strained melon base, seltzer, ice, and orange-flower water separately in a cold chest. Dilute the base twenty minutes before drinking, then add the floral water when the glasses come out.
Advance Preparation
- •The melon infusion can be strained up to 24 hours ahead and kept tightly covered in the refrigerator. Add the ice and seltzer twenty minutes before serving, then finish with orange-flower water at the table.
- •Make the large filtered-water ice cube the day before. A single clear cube chills the pitcher with slower, more controlled dilution than a handful of small cubes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 250g)
Calories
185 calories
Total Fat
0 g
Saturated Fat
0 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
0 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
10 mg
Total Carbohydrates
46 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
46 g
Protein
0 g
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