Bletting Medlars

Day 38: It's medlar season! The first frosts came in hard, signalling that it was time to pick. The friend who owns the tree sent down a boxful which are destined to be Experiment #2 in making medlar jelly. You may recall that last year's product stiffened up to a taffy-like consistency and each jar required remelting with the addition of several tablespoons of water in order to make it spreadable. This year, I will be using liquid pectin rather than reducing the sweetened juice down, but since I have been unable to find a recipe using pectin, I'm having to guess at the ratio of juice to sugar. The worst that can happen is that I will wind up with several pints of medlar syrup. Medlar jelly has an unusual flavour, something like honey with a hint of persimmon. I used part of last year's batch for a delicious ham glaze. But first, these peculiar fruits have to be bletted, i.e., left in a cool corner of the kitchen until they begin to soften. This is actually the first stage of decomposition: medlars are only edible when they've begun to rot, and since for many people, the very idea is repellent, they are not commonly grown. That said, medlars are known to be one of the first fruits mankind cultivated for food.