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  • From: rob hamilton <lostman_amiga@yahoo.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Bletting
  • Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 08:02:29 -0700 (PDT)

You have very good idea for exploration Lon!!

Though I have not tried the Chinese quince (Pseudocydonia sinensis) in bletting, I think this would be a good candidate. Upon your own suggestion I cooked some down with some sugar and got a very good cranberry like sauce. It was a bright orange with a mashed potatoe consistancy - not only edible, but quite tasty. I also have made a nice wine with it. The liquid turns a dark blood red during fermentation and give full bodied mildly astringent wine that me an my friends like.  I have recently found so research on the high antiviral/antibacteral qualities of the fruit if anyone wants to see - but I digress.

I imagine these large fruits could be bletted as well - and with mango size of these fruits, just a few would suit most needs.

Of course there is the other quinces as well. The Flowering Quince (Chaenomeles speciosa) does well for me. The taste is like lemon with an hard apple texture, but I wonder if bletting would lower the acid.  The regular Quince (Cydonia) that most people are familiar with does suffers from fireblight down here of what I am told.  I still want to try though.
Also, I have had some very nice Cornelian cherry (Cornus Mas) that were bletted. There wasent much flesh around the seed, but the taste mildly sweet wine favor, yet it was very different than anything I had tried before.

On a related topic...
I would like to here some different methods of bletting from people. I know a number of my Medlars sour or even moldy before finishing. I can imaging fleshy fruits like the Quinces would have and even worse problem. Does anyone prep the fruits first?  ...a 3% bleach or distilled vinegar wash? Do they do better on sunlight or in dark?



"Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com> wrote:
For the uninitiated, bletting is a process of after-ripening usually
applied to medlar fruits. In their fresh picked state, medlars are
hard, acid, and astringent. When bletted, the flesh becomes soft, dark
brown, and loses the acid and astringency, making the fruit quite nice
to eat. Bletting also works with Sorbus domestica, as has been
mentioned here in other threads.
I bring it up because I have been collecting species pears for seed.
Things like P. betulafolia and P. calleryana. They are hardly larger
than a pea, and are quite acid and astringent when picked, But I find
that, like medlars, they lose most of their acid and astringency and
become soft and pleasant when bletted. P. betulafolia keeps some acid,
while losing all astringency, to become spicy and surprisingly
pleasant.
Perhaps it might be worth some exploring to try bletting other pome
fruits that are ordinarily inedible to see if there aren't more types
that blet well. We may be overlooking a lot of fruits that are not
only edible but have exotic flavors only when bletted. Various
hawthorn and species pear fruits would be my first thought. Any other
possibles any of you might have tried?
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at
http://www.bunchgrapes.com Winner of the Garden Writers Association
"Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
For even more grape lessons, go to http://www.grapeschool.com
For all other things grape, http://www.vitisearch.com
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