Making medlar cheese
Medlars are a much under-appreciated fruit. We recently picked a large bag of medlars which would otherwise have gone to waste and decided to make medlar cheese. The first thing, to make them edible, is it to leave them to go soft and squishy – the medlars will change from a yellowy colour to a dark brown – this is called bletting and is essential to any medlar processing.
In our case this bletting had been largely completed while the fruit was still on the tree after the frost had got to them but we kept them a few days beyond that in the warmth of the kitchen in a well-ventilated corner.
Medlar mashing and mixing and making mushy
To get the flesh out we squeezed them to break the skin and then scooped out the insides with a spoon. This is then put through a sieve which eliminates the five seeds and the skin from each fruit. We also squeezed the residual skins to get the last of the flesh out – it’s messy and gunky but satisfying once you have a sieved pile of medlar pulp. You then weigh the pulp and put it into a large heavy-bottomed pan with an exactly equivalent amount of granulated sugar and heat over a low heat stirring well until the sugar is dissolved.
Turning up the heat – but careful
You can then turn up the heat and continue stirring until it becomes really thick: during this process it will “plop” and gurgle. Be careful not to let the medlar mixture splash on your face or hands as it is very hot. You need to keep at this until the mixture is really, really thick so that it won’t even drip off the wooden spoon you are stirring with.
Moulds for medlar cheese
You can use a cup cake tin or a loaf-shaped tin. You should pour the hot mixture into the lightly greased tin (we also put a layer of teflon in ours to protect the tin). Once the medlar cheese has cooled, which may take a few hours (usually overnight, while your wrists recover and you dream of a moon made of medlar cheese), the loaf will become hard and the next morning it can be sliced into chunks which are delicious.
This makes an ideal present and is a novelty for most people who have often gone through much of their life without ever experiencing Medlar cheese. It is almost impossible to buy it commercially so you will be eating or giving away a delicacy which is unavailable in shops.
Plant more Medlars!
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13 comments so far
Matt King
14 January, 2011
What a great idea – thanks for talking this through and the lovely photos. We will definitely be planting medlars in our meadow, which we hope to transform over a number of years into a Forest Garden.
Karen
25 April, 2011
This is fantastic. We just have to get some Medlar.
Old Varieties
21 May, 2011
I had not heard of the Medlar until I read your article – so I looked for more information. I had not realised how old the fruit wa. Anyone else want to know more should take a look at this article over on a website called Old Varieties – http://bit.ly/mECydw
Sarah
22 June, 2011
I’ve just found a source of medlars and have finally got them to blet – they need to be kept in straw to keep the moisture in, otherwise they dessicate. I’m in the process of making jelly, but I’d like to try the cheese with next year’s crop. I’ve saved seeds – does anyone know how to plant them?
Chris
22 June, 2011
You could ask the RHS – happened to notice on a search of their site the following “Medlars are grafted or budded onto quince rootstocks or could be grown from seed. Fruit nurseries will often supply rootstocks and carry out the grafting or budding for you if you have suitable scion material. You can try grafting yourself, but can be tricky and normally takes years of practice.”
Regards.
Fiona
27 September, 2011
Are these a suitable plant for Temperate Southern climate, or do they require a solid (frosty/snowy) Winter to set fruit or germinate seeds? We live in Australia, so “Medlars” are relatively unknown.
Heather
18 November, 2011
How long does the medlar cheese keep?
John (Paris, France)
4 December, 2011
This is the clearest explanation that I have found. Thank you.
Based on my research, there seem to be two approaches to what to do with that sieve: this recipe, which I followed, calls for straining uncooked medlar, whereas I find others which call for cooking them in a bain-marie before passing the cooked mixture through the sieve. I opted for the one that strains before cooking, both to avoid having to strain hot material and to get the messy part over with early in the process.
Can the “scraps” from making cheese (the skins, gritty pulp, etc) be boiled up to make a small batch of jelly? If I’ve made the recipe which has not already cooked them, I assume that these scraps still contain their medlar scents (which is perhaps an argument for the recipe that cooks everything before straining).
If anyone has experience with the above, I would much enjoy hearing it.
Vivien Cruickshank
26 June, 2012
I have been trying to find out how many years you have to wait for the fruit after planting it.
So far I have had no success. Can anyone help?
I suspect the answer will be not in my lifetime, but I’m hoping not.
John (Paris, France)
26 June, 2012
I bought a tree mail-order in France, and I don’t recall having to wait more than a year for the fruit. Likely my tree would be a medlar grafted on to another rootstock. If your tree is grown from seed, perhaps it could take longer.
To answer Heather: the unused part of medlar cheese I made last December is still fine, and its texture has not degraded 6 months later (stored in the fridge).
Let the bletting begin | Comfortably Hungry…
27 November, 2012
[...] medlar tree and for several years I have been gathering the fruit. At first I made medlar jelly and medlar cheese (both of which are very good). Then I came across a medlar vinegar made by Stratta which is [...]
Ligia (Romania)
15 December, 2012
I have many medlar trees at home !
Medlars are delicious and very healthy, but i had no idea about this recipe !
I will try it !
Vanda Jackson
14 May, 2013
I love my medlar beautiful at all stages from pure white spring flowers to glorious autumn leaf colours.. It fruited from the first season I planted it, the crops getting larger each year. I live in Hobart and it does very well here and also in Victoria. It survived the summer drought but my son with a better water supply used it and his fruit are twice the size of mine and the crop embarrassingly large. We also find that medlars have a tendency to tilt over but then produce vertical shoots, or are quite happy to be pushed upright and staked.