The medlars I scrumped a week or so back appeared to have successfully bletted (they were brown and squishy at any rate and one of them was definitely oozing) so turning them into jelly was a job not to be put off, not least because I kind of wanted them out the way. Rotting fruit around the place is a bit disconcerting, but then everything about the medlars has been disconcerting so far.
I dutifully boiled them up - they do indeed smell like wet wood as they cook, it's an aroma that successfully blotted out the rather more appealing smell of the Christmas chutney I'd made a few days before and which hadn't quite disappeared. After that it was into the jelly bag for a night of dripping into waiting pan - even after a thorough boiling and at a point of disintegration (though with hindsight I should perhaps have waited for total disintegration) they didn't yield a lot of liquid. Annoyingly at this point I managed to drop the contents of the jelly bag all over a chair and then the floor. Very squishy medlar remains are not a joy to clean up.
The upside of the small yield was that I could use a small pan and everything happened really quickly. The maybe a downside is that the 2 lemons the recipe called for were extremely juicy so the overall result is lemony. It's a pleasant flavour but I'm not sure how much of it is medlar. I also panicked a bit about reaching setting point so decided far to late to chuck a bit of powdered pectin in the pan forgetting that it would just turn into jelly lumps with the result that my two jars of otherwise attractive gold and russet tinted jelly are quite cloudy.
On the whole I'm glad I did this, it's something I've wanted to have a crack at for years because medlars are such odd looking things and they have a distinctly antique charm, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd make again unless the jelly turns out to be incredible. It turns out I'm just not that keen on trays of rotting fruit in my sitting room...
Get well soon! My Mum had shingles, most unpleasant. Hope the medlar jelly is brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThank you Margaret. On the mend now, but still not convinced by the jelly...
DeleteBeen there, had that (the shingles, not the medlars). I hope your case is a light one, and just keep remembering - they DO go away!
ReplyDeleteThe only upside to shingles is that so many people have had them that they're all sympathetic at work. Horrible things.
DeleteI hope you are feeling more up to things now. Horrid, horrid shingles. I have always wondered whether tfruit that needs to be left to go squishy is worth it, so wait with baited breath for the great medlar tasting. They are a complete rarity in my bit of Australia (too hot), so I don't imagine I will ever get a chance to play with them myself.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right about the Medlars, it was fun to have a play but possibly more trouble than they're truly worth in the end. So watch me do the same next year...
ReplyDeleteWithout going to Google the only thing I can think of is meddler's jam. Even after looking just now, I am still a bit mystified. Although when I was doing research on St. Elizabeths they had a type of fruit that was better after the first frost when it was "bletted" (another new word for me), but for the life of me I can't think of what that fruit was. A persimmon maybe?
ReplyDeleteThey're strange aren't they! Think I first heard of them in something ridiculous like Midsummer murders. When I found a tree in the garden of a museum on my street it seemed to good an opportunity to pass up.
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