My first year back in Kent – after over twenty years away – has been extraordinary, not least for the incredible fruit glut brought about by the bizarre weather conditions we’ve had.
I’ve never seen, let alone picked or processed, so much fruit in my life. So much so that, frankly, I’ve struggled to keep up with it all. The acquisition of a third (yes, you read that right) freezer relieved some of the pressure, but still the fruit keeps coming.
Now, following hard on the peels of quinces are the fruit often mentioned in the same breath, and similarly evocative of autumn and times past – medlars. When we planted the garden earlier this year, a medlar was part of our grand scheme. It’s doing fine thus far, but I think it’ll be a while before we see any fruit from it. I was therefore thrilled to find medlars at the wonderful permanent farmers’ market in Canterbury, the Goods Shed, and quickly bagged a couple of kilos.
And then – the waiting game. While medlars can be used unbletted, their flavour is much improved by waiting for the rot to set in. Two weeks after I bought them, they were pretty much ready to go.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that medlars – rather like rosehips (medlars are, in fact, related to roses) – aren’t the juiciest of fruits. For that reason, they often have apples or quinces added to them in order to make jelly or ‘cheese’.
But, like quinces, their flavour is unique – somewhere between apples, dates, custard, and caramel is the nearest I can come to it – and I was keen to preserve that very special essence. To that end, I opted to make syrup from them. I cooked all 1.8kgs of them, let them drip through muslin overnight, and then added some unrefined caster sugar to the resultant juice (at a ratio of about 200g to 600mls – but add to taste).
A few stirs over a medium hob later, and I had my syrup. All 250mls of it. As beautiful as amber, and – from a cost/yield analysis perspective – almost as precious…
My next dilemma is to decide how best to use it. I’m thinking along the lines of soaking madeleines or friands with it – what do you think?
“hard on the peels” -haha.
I’ve never tried a medlar, but from the sounds of this a little slick on a buttermilk pannacotta would be delicious.
I’ve never made anything with medlars but would really love to try. Your syrup looks delicious, and would think madeleines soaked in it would be even better, yum!
Good thinking, Alicia – I like it…
I’m slightly embarassed to admit I’ve never held a medlar in my hand, let alone tasted them in any format. I enjoy foraging for blackberries, elderflowers and apples but medlar is something I’m not familiar with.
Your description of the taste makes me long to try it.
Shall have to wait till next year now, I imagine.
Nice finding and nice work
How about as part of a tagine? Those flavours sound like they would be good with that. Or as a sweet hit with curries. Or in the middle of a Danish pastry?
I wonder finally whether rosemary & lavender might not be good partners?
Carl
Beautiful! I’m fascinated by medlars — they were totally unknown to me until about two months ago, because as far as I know, they’re not grown in or exported to America. The syrup, I imagine, would be beautiful incorporated into a pigeon dish, or some other wild game. But my thoughts always turn to booze. Can you make brandy out of medlars? Would it taste foul or wonderful?
We had 10kg from our tree this year and I foolishly brought back another 4kg of wild ones from France. We make jelly which is delicious and if you have plenty a batch with a splash of rosewater in it makes a lovely addition to the breakfast toast.
We’ve also made fruit cheese and the equivalents of membrillo or cotignac. Keeps well like that.
Hmm, on creamed rice pudding would be lovely, especially with some poached apples/ pears/ quinces or as mentioned above in a game casserole/ pot roast. Rosehip syrup next….?
Hmm, very interesting recipe this, now you’ve got me wanting to meddle with medlars
I’ve never seen them, but will definitely be on the lookout for them now!
I am clueless abuot Medlar, where to find, what to sub with (rosewater/sugar syrup?) or how on earth do anything with this esoteric thing (fruit? vegetable? seed?) Could you please expand on this MOST MYSTERIOUS item? Thank you.
Fantastic stuff. You’ve got me wondering whether we can make Medlar Syrup as a wedding favour… although I suspect we’ll have to do a lot of medlar scavenging to get our hands on enough fruit. Would it be good on a madeleine?