Medlar Jam

 

I was lucky enough to collect a windfall of medlar from a local tree a couple weeks ago. As you can see, they are an odd looking fruit that, due to there rather unfortunate shape, where known once as the open-arse. 

Although not widely known today, in Medieval Europe, it was a prized fruit. So much so that Charlemagne, in 800AD, mandated that all his gardens grew them. The reason it was so loved is because of the season medlar ripen. The fruit are ready to harvest very late, at the end of November and into December. This is a time when little else sweet remains.

Bizzarely, when you harvest them from the tree, they are still hard. Not edible at all. The windfall medlar I collected off the ground where the same. Rock hard. To ripen them, I layed them along a windowsill out of direct sunlight for a good couple weeks. 

Medlar probably fell out of favour, and into downright obscurity, due to the strange way they ripen. Some liken it to rotting rather than ripening, which I personally think is rather unfair. I don't deny their texture and appearance when bletted (the word for ripe medlar) is out of the ordinary. You know they are bletted when they go completely brown, with wrinkled skin, and flesh the consistancy of soft butter. Weird!

At this point, you can choose to eat the flesh by simply scooping it out with a teaspoon and discarding the seeds, but I argue making medlar jam is far superior. The taste is remenisant of subtle spiced dates or cinnamon toffee apples. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

- Bletted Medlar Fruit

- Boiling Water

- Lemon Juice

- Demerera Sugar

- Vanilla Extract

- Cinnamon Powder

Instructions:

Ensure you have a sterile preserving jar available. Mine always end up far too big but better too big than too small I guess... Anyway, where was I?

Wash the medlars and place them in a large cooking pot. Then, add boiling water until half the fruit are submerged. Using a potato masher, pulverise the fruit until smooth. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

Remove from the hob and, using a spatula, separate the pulp from the seeds and skin by pressing it through a fine sieve into a second pot. Discard the seeds and skin in your compost bin.

To the pot of strained medlar pulp, add half its weight in demerara sugar. In other words, if you have 500g of pulp, add 250g of demerara sugar. Additionally, add the juice of half a lemon for every 500g of medlar pulp. Finally, add a dash of vanilla extract and cinnamon powder to taste.

Mix well and simmer on the hob for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Once cooked, pour the finished jam into a sterile preserving jar. Finally, try not to eat it too fast over the coming weeks. Yum!