The Grand Medlar Experiment

Day 77: It will be a few days before I can give a complete report on the results of the Grand Medlar Experiment 2023, but indications are that it was at least more successful than my 2021 attempt. This time, I used commercial pectin and Certo's recipe for apple/crabapple jelly, adding a quarter cup of lemon juice to give the pectin a nudge in the right direction. Prior to decanting it into jars for processing in a hot-water bath, I skimmed the foam off the top and placed it in a small bowl. By the time canning was complete, it had cooled sufficiently for me to see that it was going to set, although how firm the jelly will be after a week or two remains to be seen. Some jams and marmalades take up to two weeks to fully set; others soften. In any event, the foam was delicious, licked straight off the spoon, albeit rather sweeter than expected. There is a note of rose in the flavour, a hint of citrus, overall much like a fragrant, light honey. Even if it goes "soupy," it will make an excellent glaze for ham or a pork roast, but I am expecting it to set this time around.

The Medlar Project

Day 89: The principle is sound. The practice needs perfecting. I cooked the medlar jelly too long, and it set to the consistency of taffy. That said, further experimentation yielded a solution: add a little water to each jar, reheat in a pan of hot water as if de-crystallizing honey, and allow to cool. The jelly will reset because it contains no pectin other than what was in the fruit. Next year, I want to try adapting the recipe to use commercial pectin, but this year's medlar windfall produced four half-pints and four 4-ounce jars of very tasty garnet-coloured jelly. The flavour eludes description. There is a hint of lemony tartness, a slight similarity to persimmon, perhaps a pleasantly earthy overtone suspended in an exotic and aromatic honey. It tastes...well, it tastes like medlars, deliciously so. It would be excellent as a chutney with pork, as mint jelly goes with lamb. Despite the issue of the too-firm set, I would call the experiment a success. It just needs a bit of refining.

The Grand Experiment

Day 88: The Grand Experiment is under way, and if it tastes half as good as it smells, I will be quite pleased. A windfall of medlars yielded eight cups of liquid after being simmered gently for an hour per batch. This "juice" was then frozen to await final processing into jelly. Review of several pectinless recipes on YouTube suggested roughly one cup of sugar per cup of liquid. For the record, I decided to use seven cups of sugar. Now the boiling begins. Once the jelly has reached the "set" point (to be determined by dropping a bit of it on a chilled plate), I will jar it up. I couldn't resist sampling the sweetened juice, and I'm sure it's going to validate the time involved in bletting the fruit in a corner of my kitchen.