Medlar jelly

[Leif]

I have two Royal medlar trees and last year made medlar jam, not bothering to strain it properly so it was opaque. Very tasty. Today I made medlar jelly using some white cotton cloth as a jelly bag. I’ve always been surprised that everyone makes jelly, no-one seems to want to make jam. Or to use the bletted fruit, which are very tasty as long as fully bletted. I will probably boil down the excess, strain our the skin and seeds, and reduce down to make stewed medlar to be eaten as is.

[Leif]

Does noone here grow medlars? The jelly is very tasty, it is a bit hard than ideal so more like Turkish delight than marmalade.

I wonder if anyone has tried extracting the pulp from bletted fruit by pressing? Boiling seems to bring out the tannins and so on from the skins, requiring the addition of sugar. Since you can eat a bletted medlar raw, and it is tasty, it is in theory possible to press the fruit to extract pulp for use with yoghurt and so on without having to add sugar, which is not so healthy.

[bluebell]

Interesting Leif, since I am considering more fruit trees – what variety do you grow?

[Leif]

I have two Royal medlars from Keepers, one is enough for jelly, but they are attractive trees. I also have a sweet quince, but it has not fruited yet after four or five years.

[Author]

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