Medlars

Historically, the butt of literary jokes, this strange fruit is an acquired taste

- SIMON RICKARD

The medlar has been the butt of bawdy jokes for centuries. It’s the smutty clown of the fruit world, which makes us laugh at the absurdity of our own human frailties.

Jokes about medlars stem from two unusual features of the fruit: their appearance, and their ripening habit. Medlar fruits are hemispherical and, frankly, poo-brown. The blossom end of the fruit is a little concave and puckered, reminiscent of… let’s just say somewhere the sun doesn’t shine. Indeed, the French nickname for the medlar is “cul de chien”: literally “dog’s bottom”.

Medlar fruits are too hard and astringent to be eaten straight from the tree. They need to be placed in a basket and left indoors for a couple of weeks until they become soft and translucent. This process is known as “bletting”, from the French word “blet”, meaning “overripe”. Once “bletted”, you can peel back the skin and scoop out the soft flesh.