Melon balls carved out of fruits can be enjoyed as a main dish, as a salad, or as garnishes. They are easily scooped using a melon baller. HomeQuicks tells you how to use this tool to scoop balls out of melons, vegetables, and truffles, and also gives you some innovative uses of it.
Fact
Lady Augustina invented the melon baller on April 13, 1846. Interestingly, this day of the year is celebrated as the Melon Baller Day!
A melon baller, also known as a melon scooper or a Parisienne scoop, is a tool used to scoop out balls from fruits and vegetables. The vegetable or fruit balls, thus scooped out, can be used as a main dish or as a garnish for desserts or drinks. A melon baller comes in sizes from 1 to 3 cm (the diameter of the scoop). It consists of a handle and a semi-circular scoop.
Types Of Melon Ballers
There are two types of melon ballers available in the market; one-sided and two-sided. One-sided or single-sided melon ballers have a single scooper attached to the edge of a wooden, metallic, or plastic handle.
Two-sided or double-sided melon ballers have scoops attached to both the ends of the handle. The scoops may be of the same or different sizes.
Using a Melon Baller
Scooping Out Balls
Wash the melon and cut it into halves. If the melon has seeds, remove them with a knife or spoon. Now dunk the scoop of the melon baller into the melon and rotate it, so as to scoop out a ball from the fruit’s flesh. The hollow of the baller should be firmly pushed into the flesh of the melon. While scooping out balls, rotate the tool inwards, towards yourself, and then push it upwards.
When you push the melon baller in an upward direction, you will separate the ball from the grind of the melon. Carefully scoop out more balls from the melon and place them in a bowl. They are ready to serve. If you are a first-timer, do not expect to get it right in the first attempt. The balls may not be exact spheres, they may come out uneven, or even break in the process. This procedure can be followed to scoop balls out of watermelons, apples, cantaloupes, and sweet melons.
How to Make Truffles with a Melon Scooper
Chocolate Truffles
In order to make chocolate truffles, you should set its batter in the refrigerator until it thickens. After the chilled chocolate truffle mixture is ready, take it out of the refrigerator and let it come to a temperature that is slightly lesser than the room temperature.
Do not try to scoop out chocolate balls when the truffle is too cold, otherwise you will end up getting broken pieces of chocolate. Also, do not scoop when the truffle is at or beyond room temperature, because it will make the truffle scoops wobbly. So, once the truffle is at the required temperature, use a melon baller with a scoop size of 1 cm (bigger diameters will give you oddly huge balls) and dunk it into the batter.
Through the hollow curve of the tool, scoop out chocolate balls by twisting the melon baller inwards (towards yourself). Once you see that there is enough batter in the scoop, give the melon baller an upward push. Once done, you will have a chocolate truffle scoop, ready to serve.
At times, the chocolate truffle sticks to the scooper, in which case it is not easy to transfer it to another container. Here, you can use a spoon to gently push the chocolate truffle out of the melon baller. Avoid using your hands to remove the chocolate ball, as the chocolate may melt. Sprinkle it with cocoa powder and dig your teeth into the lip-smacking truffle balls.
Other Uses
Make Cookies
You can carve out small round cookies from the cookie batter, by using a melon baller.
- A melon scooper can be used to pit out the seeds of a fruit. You can remove the seeds from a pumpkin, winter squash, watermelon, or cucumber.
- Melon ballers can also be used to clean the inner part of bell peppers.
- They can also be used to scoop out butter.
- You can knead cornflour dough and cooked chicken together, then scoop out balls of dough from this mixture, using a melon baller. These dough balls can be enjoyed by putting them in a soup.
- When out on a beach, you can make small castles with wet sand, using a melon baller.
Now that you know how to use a melon baller and the various uses it has, you would want to buy one for yourself, won’t you?