Technique: Heirloom Melon Terrine with Executive Chef Gabriel Bremer of Salts Restaurant

Technique: Making an Heirloom Melon Terrine
Chef Gabriel Bremer of Salts Restaurant - Cambridge, MA
September 2009

Executive Chef Gabriel Bremer of Salts Restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts offers a simple but arresting method for featuring the flavors, colors and textures of summer’s heirloom melons.

Chef Bremer’s terrine does not require an actual terrine dish, although the finished product resembles a terrine in shape and layering. Bremer uses at least two to three varieties of heirloom melons for a single terrine, ensuring a gradation of sweetness and color in the finished product.

The success of the terrine depends simply, but pivotally, on the quality of the fruit and the proportion of pectin and calcium glucinate. Chef Bremer uses solutions of pectin and calcium to permeate and fortify the terrine as it is vacuumed.

The result is a dish that is both gentle and straightforward, combining the rusticity of a simple fruit dessert with innovative technique.

Step 1: Trim two to three melons of their skins; divide into hemispheres and seed.
Step 2: Trim the hemispheres from two different melon varieties into neat, matching rectangles that stack perfectly.
Step 3: Prepare calcium glucinate by using a Waring immersion blender to combine calcium with water; prepare pectin solution by adding pectin to water already in blender.
Step 4: Put melon slices in vacuum bag with calcium solution. Seal and vacuum to incorporate calcium into melon slices without completely compressing them; let rest 10 minutes and blot with towel to remove excess calcium solution.
Step 5: Brush melon slices with pectin, sandwiching those sides; brush exposed sides and surface of melon slices with pectin solution.
Step 6: Put stacked melon slices into vacuum bag, vacuuming this time to fully compress; let rest for 8 to 10 hours, preferably overnight.
Step 7: Slice fully compressed melon terrine into desired shape and serve.

Heirloom Melon Terrine with Whipped Chamomile Tea and Lime Salt
Salts Restaurant – Cambridge, MA
Adapted by StarChefs.com
September 2009

INGREDIENTS

Melon Terrine:
1 honeydew melon
1 Charentais melon
1 kilogram water
2.5 grams Calcium gluconate
15 grams LM pectin

Whipped Chamomile Tea:
125 grams water
5 grams dried chamomile flowers
75 grams sugar
6 grams Versa Whip
1 gram xanthan gum

Lime Salt:
300 grams fleur de sel
Zest of 2 limes

For the Lime Gel:
225 grams lime juice
205 grams water
75 gram sugar
2 grams gellan F

METHOD

For the Melon Terrine:
Trim the melons into equal pieces, making sure that the tops and bottoms of these pieces are flat. With a hand blender mix 500 grams of water with the calcium gluconate. Vacuum seal the melon in a bag with the calcium solution and allow it to sit for 10 minutes, until the melon has absorbed the calcium. Open the vacuum bag and pat the melon dry.

Heat the remaining 500 grams of water to 95ºC. Pour the water into a Vita Prep and turn it to low speed. Increase the speed to form a vortex in the center of the blender. With the blender running, slowly add the pectin. Once the pectin is cooled, brush it on one piece of the melon and lay another piece of melon on top. Repeat this process with all of the melon. Vacuum seal the melon to compress it together and let sit refrigerated overnight. The next day open the bag and slice the melon into the desired shapes.

For the Whipped Chamomile Tea:
Bring the water to a boil and add in the chamomile flowers. Allow the chamomile to steep for 30 to 40 minutes. Strain and chill the tea. Combine the tea with the chamomile, Versa Whip, and xanthan gum. Whip to a firm meringue with an immersion blender.

For the Lime Salt:
Put the salt and zest into a vacuum bag and seal on high. Allow the mixture to infuse overnight.

For the Lime Gel:
Combine all the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil for 40 seconds. Pour the mixture into a hotel pan to chill. Once the mixture is firm, transfer to a Vita Prep and blend on high until smooth.