A Bucket of Watermelon
 Nothing says summer quite like a juicy ripe watermelon. Its refreshing sweetness is largely due to its unique makeup of 92 percent water and 8 percent natural sugars. Besides being delicious to eat out of hand, a hollowed-out watermelon makes a dramatic “ice bucket” for wine bottles at a barbecue or Sunday brunch. It’s easy to do. Here’s how:
- Choose a firm, symmetrical and bruise-free watermelon that weighs between 25 and 40 pounds. Make sure it’s heavy for its size. Check for a yellow side on the melon to be sure it was allowed to ripen in the sun.
- If you intend to save and eat the watermelon fruit, wash the melon before cutting it open. Be sure to slice off a sliver of rind from the bottom of the watermelon, if necessary, so that it sits solidly without rocking.
- Slice open the watermelon, leaving a smooth edge. Or, for fun, carve a wavy edge or sharp picket-like edge. If you wish, carve the opening so the back of the melon is slightly higher than the front, or one side is higher than the other.
- Use an ice cream scoop to remove the watermelon flesh.
- You may prefer your watermelon wine chiller plain or you can decorate the rim with flowers. Use a wooden or metal skewer to poke holes in the rim, and then slip the flowers in the holes.
- Choose an accessible, preferably waterproof, location for your beverage station. Fill the melon with crushed ice and drop in bottles of rosé or white wines to chill down to perfect drinking temperature.
Don’t toss out the leftover watermelon! Cut up the chunks and create a fruit salad by combining with melon-balled flesh from honeydew melons and cantaloupes, strawberries, pineapple, grapes and other fruits. Or purée the fruit into a smoothie. (Drink some of the smoothie now, and pour the rest into ice-pop molds and freeze for tomorrow.) As for the rind, some home cooks like to make it into watermelon pickles. |
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