Sunday, 25 September 2022

Medlars in Berlin: The Forgotten Fruit

A rectangular postage stamp. It shows a tree twig with pointed oval green leaves, and three spiky brown medlar plants. It has a 2 in the top lefthand corner as it is work 2 leks in the currency of Albania. Shqiperia is written in white capital letters across the bottom. The background is pale blue.
Albanian 2 lek postage stamp, with medlar design (1965)
Found in Wikimedia Commons

In one garden plot at the early 20th-century victory gardens that I discovered in Berlin-Tempelhof yesterday, I spotted a medlar tree.

A photograph of a medlar tree with big glossy green leaves and reddish medlar fruits. They have spiky leaflets at the tips. To the right, a quince tree with round yellow fruits. A green lawn is visible underneath and behind the trees.
Medlar and apple quince trees
In the Papestraße allotment gardens, Berlin.
Photograph taken September 24, 2022, by the author.
Public domain

Medlars*, native to the Balkans, grew popular in ancient Greece and Rome. By the 17th and 18th centuries, after appearing in Shakespeare's plays, they became increasingly rare. The Wikipedia article asserts that once the fruit is rotted by winter frosts, it has a "consistency and flavour reminiscent of apple sauce." But it is also an "acquired taste."

*Mispeln

Because medlars have a lifespan of 30 to 60 years, the tree I saw was almost certainly planted after World War II.

It's unlikely I will ever have a chance to cook any medlars. So I can recommend reading recipes from American chef David Lebovitz, Guardian food columnist Tom Hunt, and British chef James Martin, amongst others.

A painting. A simple wooden tabletop. Three glowing, red-brown medlar fruits are placed on the corner. A single black-speckled white butterfly is hovering above the fruits, bright against the dramatic black background. The painting style is clearly 17th century.
Three Medlars with a Butterfly (circa 1705)
Painting by Adriaen Coorte
Found in Wikimedia Commons

A British website, The Foods of England Project, has helpfully reprinted a 16th-century recipe:

To make a tarte of Medlers

TAke Medlers that be rotten, & straine them then set them on a chafingdish of coales, and beate it in two yolkes of Egges, and let it boil til it be somewhat thick: then season it with synamon, Ginger and Sugar, and lay it in paste.

This wintry photograph shows graceful dark twigs that have been coated by frost, from a very close point of view. Big white crystals are also sparkling on the green leaves and the brown fruit of the medlars. The sky behind the tree is clear and blue.
"Reifende Früchte im Rauhreif"
English translation: Ripening fruits in frost
Photograph attributed to Burkhard Mücke, 2014.
Found on Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 3.0 license

(Judging by David Lebovitz's blog, this Renaissance era cook is recommending a helpful technique to address the fact that these fruits have many seeds. The seeds would be annoying to eat if we didn't sift the pulp.)

***

Sources:

"Medlar" [The Foods of England Project] Glyn Hughes*. Retrieved September 25, 2022.

"Medlar Jelly" [The Foods of England Project] Glyn Hughes. Retrieved September 25, 2022.

"Mespilus germanica", Wikipedia

Other sources linked in blog post itself.

[Update: I originally missed when writing this blog post that Mr. Hughes had died. Condolences to his family and friends.]

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