jeff@rtech.ARPA (Jeff Lichtman) (04/27/85)
I have a copy of "Jams and Jellies" by May Byron, a book that tells how to
make all types of preserves. It was originally published in 1917, and
re-published by Dover in 1975. It contains the following description of
medlars:
"Note.- This remarkable fruit, which, though wild in Britain, has been
cultivated for many centuries, has apparently little justification for its
existence. It is an apple of sorts; but it is not edible, in any form,
till beyond maturity and on the high-road to over-ripeness. In fact, until
the fruit has 'bletted' or softened for from two to four weeks, no expert in
medlars considers it worth his attention. The medlar is unknown to many
people, though its fine bloom upon a gnarled and twisted growth renders it
conspicuous in park or orchard. I give some recipes for preserving the medlar,
with the proviso that not everybody will like its peculiar and quite original
flavor."
Has anyone in netland ever tasted a medlar? Are they really as disgusting
as this makes them sound?
--
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
aka Swazoo Koolak
{amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff
{ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeffjcp@osiris.UUCP (Jody Patilla) (04/28/85)
> Has anyone in netland ever tasted a medlar? Are they really as disgusting > as this makes them sound? > -- > Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) > aka Swazoo Koolak > I first learned about medlars when reading Shakespeare. A character compares a woman to a medlar, this being both a pun on "meddler" and on the fruit itself. The fruit is not eaten until it gets so soft it is almost rotten, and what happens is that the bud end (opposite the stem) shrinks into the fruit, ending up looking something like a particular bodily orifice. You therefore get the idea this was a rather naughty pun, y'see. Our prof explained that medlars were actually more closely related to pears than apples, also. -- jcpatilla "'Get stuffed !', the Harlequin replied ..."
schrei@faust.UUCP (04/29/85)
No, I have never tasted a medlar; and yes, they do sound disgusting.
This response has to do with what I have just learned some twenty years
after the fact.
If memory serves correctly (which is hardly guaranteed), NIH created
an information storage and retrieval system some time in the 60's. It's name was the acronym MEDLARS. It seems that it was probably somebody's
in joke.