A Forgotten Medieval Fruit with a Vulgar Name (2021)

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> for the best part of 900 years, the fruit was called the "open-arse" – thought to be a reference to the appearance of its own large "calyx" or bottom. The medlar's aliases abroad were hardly more flattering. In France, it was variously known as "la partie postérieure de ce quadrupede" (the posterior part of this quadruped), "cu d'singe" (monkey's bottom), "cu d'ane" (donkey's bottom), and cul de chien (dog's bottom)… you get the idea.

Got it growing in our garden, so not that forgotten.

Forgotten by some, maybe, but there are many Iranian-American and Armenian-American families with medlar trees in their suburban LA yards. It is sold at Paradise Nursery in Chatsworth.

Sounds intriguing, want to try one now. This is the kind of thing Home Orchard Societies wet their pants over. Probably grown right next to their pawpaw tree.

Speaking of forgotten fruit.

The evolution of watermelon is fascinating. It happened in (relatively) recent human history and has really stark changes.

There are old paintings of watermelon from the 17th century and it looks nothing like modern watermelon. [1]

Another wild human guided evolution is the evolution of the chicken. [2] That one literally happened in the last 100 years. A modern chicken is 3x larger than a chicken from the 1950s.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watermelon#/media/File:Pastequ...

[2] https://www.zmescience.com/feature-post/how-chickens-tripled...

> Medieval Europeans were fanatical about a strange fruit that could only be eaten rotten.

To be clear, you do not let the medlar "rot" before eating.

Rotting involves decay by microorganisms -- fungi, bacteria, yeasts.

What the medlar does is totally different. It has an enzyme within it that continues to break down the fruit, so it goes from rock hard to soft and edible.

Because this is a different chemical process from traditional ripening, someone gave this the name "bletting". But it's definitely not "rotting".

There's an evolutionary theory that by delaying when the fruit could be eaten, it could attract animals in the winter that would be more likely to eat it (since other fruits were no longer available) and potentially transport its seeds longer distances.

The 1989 Baird and Thieret paper referenced in the article might be my favorite research paper ever. I read it soon after it came out in the reading room of my college library. After finishing it, I genuinely was uncertain whether it was a real paper or a Borgesian spoof. Bletted for months before it's edible? A Shakespearean insult? On the Unicorn Tapestry and I'd never heard of it?

Here's a full copy of the paper if this intrigues you: https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/BF02858732

Since then, I've confirmed that it actually exists. I've even tasted the fruit. It's... OK. It's a reasonably tasty spiced brown apple/pear sauce with a grainy texture, but with the spices already built in. I've got my own tree planted---more for the novelty than desire for the fruit---and hope I'll finally get a few of my own this year.

Edit: If you are looking for more bizarre ways the Medlar pops up in strange places, here's a page about its traditional use in Basque culture as a symbol of authority: https://alberdimakila.com/en/medlar-tree-wood-basque-walking...

How about the popular fruit with a vulgar name

> The English word "avocado" comes from the Spanish word aguacate, which comes from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word ahuacatl. This Nahuatl word translates to "testicle". The name was likely given to the fruit by the indigenous Nahua people because of its suggestive shape, and the fruit's reputation as an aphrodisiac.

In German there are called Mispeln or Aspernl (if you come from Austria like me) They are rather uncommon but I know some people who have grown them in their gardens. The fruits are only eadable after the first frost or if you put them into the freezer and the taste is more like mealy apples with a citrus note

By coincidence, I just took a class on the fruit at the SCA's Pennsic War. We sampled some jam (I even got a small jar to take with me).

There's a grower in Kentucky that sells saplings.

I grow 20ish varieties of fruit, with 60+ more if you add in all the various cultivars within those 20.

Medlar is one I’ve been meaning to add for a couple of years and I think I’ll finally do it next spring.

> "Credit: Alamy" (x5)

Actual credit for the hero-image engraving is Crispijn van de Passe (attributed, at least), sometime between 1600–1604, currently in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Besides the misattribution, even the description is wrong: only the right drawing (label "18") is the "Mespilus germanica" the article's about—the left one is an unrelated flower, drawn on the same page. (Or however you say it, for an engraving).

It's one plate from a large collection of botanical engravings, "Hortus Floridus" (published 1614–1616) you can browse on archive.org (I link below).

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/object/Dagkoekoeksbl...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispijn_van_de_Passe_the_Youn... ("Dutch Golden Age engraver, draughtsman and publisher of prints")

https://archive.org/details/hortusfloridusin00pass/page/n248...

And the watercolor in the 6th image is by Anselmus Boëtius de Boodt (née Alamy?), also in the Rijksmuseum, dated 1596–1610.

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/object/Mispel-Mespil...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselmus_de_Boodt ("Flemish humanist naturalist, Rudolf II physician's gemologist")

Two cultivars available in Australia: Dutch and Nottingham. https://www.daleysfruit.com.au/fruit%20pages/medlar.htm

It's not entirely forgotten, there are some specialist suppliers around and I was able to buy Medlar paste (a lot like Quince Cheese) in the UK last time I was there.

It is indeed a good accompaniement to cheese and wine.

Heavily prevalent in Europe and New Zealand, with a bit in South Africa and couple observations on the west and east coast of America. (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1367002-Crataegus-germanica)

The American variety, Stern's Medlar only has a couple observations in Arkansas (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1368643-Crataegus---canesce...)

Japanese / Chinese Medlar or Loquat are apparently distantly related, yet still have a lot of similarity and edible food (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/76949-Eriobotrya-japonica)

If its included in Crataegus (as Crataegus germanica) then it has a bunch of relations like Hawthorn (also edible, https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/51147-Crataegus-monogyna) and Azaroles (also edible, Haws, https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/191019-Crataegus-azarolus)

Seems to get heavily mixed in naming with the genus Vangueria in the family Rubiaceae, since they're frequently named Medlar, and have edible fruit, just happen to be mostly from Africa. Really confusing, since they look similar, have similar food, yet apparently different genus, family, and order. Don't cross over until they get all the way up to Clade: Eudicots. Apparently they're attached to bad luck and misfortune, so maybe they got a cursed botanical classification.

Wild-Medlar (Vangueria infausta, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/340324-Vangueria-infausta

Mountain Medlar (Vangueria parvifolia, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/595967-Vangueria-parvifolia

Velvet Wild-Medlar (Vangueria infausta ssp. infausta, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/601546-Vangueria-infausta-i...

Bush Medlar (Vangueria madagascariensis, Africa, S. America) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/466936-Vangueria-madagascar...

Natal Medlar (Vangueria lasiantha, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/341606-Vangueria-lasiantha

Waterberg Crowned-Medlar (Vangueria triflora, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/595971-Vangueria-triflora

Forest Crowned-Medlar (Vangueria bowkeri, Africa) https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/595965-Vangueria-bowkeri

My partner and i used to harvest medlars from a community garden. We made medlar jelly from them when they had bletted. It kinda tasted like tea. Must be the tannins. We ended up making a sweet chilli sauce from it when we still hasnt eaten it when our chillis became ripe the following summer

lol. This isnt forgotten at all. Monkey butt. They have it at one of my neighborhood farms with signs to "not pick it your self because we harvest it. There are web pages that show where you can find it in the wild.

This is not a forgotten fruit. It is sold in bazaars of Istanbul when the season comes. Some likes it very ripe some likes it firm. But no it is not eaten rotten.