North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Bob Hartley <bob@sprucemt.com>]

Like others on this thread, I have found medlars more trouble than they 
are worth for eating out of hand.  I live in Maryland but have a hobby 
orchard up near Biglerville, PA.  This past year I went up a week or two 
before Christmas with wife and one son and his family (wife and 
daughter)  to get trees from my Christmas tree patch.  While there, I 
noticed that one of my two small medlars (a Nottingham) had a very heavy 
crop, still on the leafless tree.  There had been a freeze early in the 
month but unseasonably warm weather ever since. The fruit was soft, 
apparently "bletted" in situ. I thought they tasted good, my son said 
they tasted like rotten applesauce and the women said they were too ugly 
and refused to taste.  Anyway I picked about half a bucket, a fraction 
of the crop, to see what could be done with them. 

There is no obvious way to separate the seed & skins from the sauce, so 
I just dumped them all into a big pot with a cup of water to keep them 
from burning at the start and broutght them to a boil with occasional 
stirring and mashing with a large spoon.  After about 15 minutes 
boiling, I let it cool some, filtered it through a couple of layers of 
cheesecloth, added sugar to the filtrate and boiled it down to the 
gelling point.  The yield was a pint of what looked like apple jelly but 
with a distinct and very pleasant taste.

Bob Hartley