We Love a Melon Baller, and Not Just for Melons
Even if all my melon baller did was ball melons, I’d be grateful. Apart from giving me time to nap in the hammock while my kids (safely) decimate their favorite fruit, it also inspires them to volunteer to prep something like this melon and cucumber salad for a dinner party—the little orbs make a simple dish look and feel extra special.
But it’s also a great tool for other summer produce. A shallow nip using the smaller scoop effortlessly hulls strawberries. The same motion using the larger end de-stems tomatoes, and you can use it on a cut tomato to scoop out seeds.
Kitchen editor Gabriella Gershenson uses a melon baller to hollow out kousa squash every summer for a Lebanese stuffed-zucchini recipe. (She uses a Norpro melon baller, which works great too.)
And not to sound like Greg Focker, but you can ball anything (video) with a melon baller. With some small caveats, of course. Large, smooth-flesh fruit like watermelon, cantaloupes, honeydew, or even papaya usually works well. But if you don’t mind some cute half-moon shapes, you can also dig into smaller produce like cucumber, avocado, or mango. More fibrous fruits like pineapple could work, too (video), but your mileage may vary depending on the fruit’s ripeness and character.
In many of these cases, using a melon baller can save you from pulling out a knife and cutting board. Just a few little globes can top a salad, whimsy up a dessert, or garnish a cocktail.
