Tuesday 3 December 2013

Medlar Cheese

Medlar Cheese

 source: Historic Food
Put some Medlars into an earthernware jar, stand it in a saucepan with boiling water nearly to the top and keep it boiling gently over a slow fire. When the Medlars are quite soft, pass them through a fine hair sieve, and weigh the pulp, and for every pound allow one and a half breakfast cups of coarsely crushed loaf sugar and half a teaspoonful of allspice. Put all the ingredients together in the preserving pan, and stir them over the fire with a wooden spoon until thickly reduced, skimming occasionally. Turn the cheese into moulds, and keep them in a cold place. When ready to serve, turn the cheeses out of the moulds on to a dish.

From Theodore Garrett The Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery (London 188 )
   busy processing lovely bletted  medlars

"  This recipe is a descendent of the chardequince and chardewarden spiced fruit pastes of the late medieval period, though these were made from quinces and pears respectively. Other fruit pastes belonging to this interesting family were cotoniack and quiddany, once commonly made in England, but now more or less extinct. The banquetting stuffe sections in seventeenth century recipe collections indicate that these pastes were also made from a wide range of other fruits, such as pippins, apricots and cherries."

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