Fruit scrolls

[MJ]

Have been munching them nonstop since I got back from Loseley. Anybody who makes something that tasty AND good for you must be the devil incarnate...

[DomT]

Just dont eat a entire Eldaberry scroll.

[Martin Cowley]

Moi ? the devil incarnate ? I'll have you know that after careful research and endless eons of trying the devil is still trying to perfect his impersonation of me ,and for some reason i woke up this morning with a strange tattoo itching on my scalp ?

[MJ]

...and for some reason i woke up this morning with a strange tattoo itching on my scalp ?

If you look in the mirror you'll see that's the emergency number for when you've eaten too much chilli... 999

[Edgar Harold]

ok im a little blonde here but can anyone tell me how to make them, i would love to know thanks love nicky.x.

[JC Milwr]

How to make fruit scrolls
1) Contact M Cowley
2) exchange fruit scrolls for money
3) open packet

Voila, fruit scrolls

The alternative seems to involve an industrial dehydrator, vast quantities of boiling fruit pulp and a year or two experimenting!

[Sophia]

A fruit scroll is a more dehydrated version of the medieval fruit leathers which had a more jelly-like consistency and came in smaller pieces often coated in sugar or a mixture of sugar and ginger/cinnamon.

In this style they are still available today in France and are known as pate de fruits (with a circumflex over the a in pate). A favoured fruit was the quince, a relative of the apple and pear (not the japanese quince people often grow today).

You can also get quince paste as eaten today in Spain, known as Membrillo it is eaten with Manchego cheese.

The following is a link to some discussion and original recipes:

http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-F ... s-msg.html

I am dying to try them if I can get hold of some real quinces.

As far as I am aware Martin's scrolls do not contain any added sugar whereas the period recipes all call for honey or sugar. The dehydrators allow him to achieve a standard consistency regardless of weather - previous attempts on my part to make damson cheese and spiced apple cheese which have a similar consistency to quince leathers have ranged from very dry to not dry enough due to relative humidity at the time. Like for making bath bombs, it is best to choose a dry day.

Sophia

[MJ]

As far as I am aware Martin's scrolls do not contain any added sugar...

Being diabetic I have to watch these things and I can categorically state eating way too much fruit scroll than is good for you in one go has no effect on my blood sugar level.

[Cat]

Damson cheese, now there's a thought....mmmm
(bit like being assaulted by a plum-flavoured brick, amazing with port and stilton and oatcake.)

I wonder if Martin could speed up the process of drying (meant to take a year) in his desecrators?

[gregory23b]

"You can also get quince paste as eaten today in Spain, known as Membrillo it is eaten with Manchego cheese."

And in Portugal quince is called Marmelo, quince jelly (really hard for jelly) being called marmelado, guess where we get marmelade from.

Ok in small doses, a bit gritty for my tastes, but nice with cheese. Used to get sent it every Xmas by grandparents.

There is also a quince jam, not set and quite jammy.

[Sophia]

Jorge - I love Membrillo, don't you dare disparage it. In English that style of jam is properly called a preserve (more like a partially set stewed fruit in texture). My fave is my Mum's Quince and Ginger Jelly.

Cat - will check at next time in Luxembourg, I think there might still be some White Currant cheese my mum and I (aka the Helmdange Jam Factory) made one year when we got bored and were being inundated by bumper crop of everything despite giving the stuff to friends and neighbours. Even more amazing than Damson Cheese - has to be tasted to be believed.

Sophia

[Martin Cowley]

we have now made a Beetroot one ,which suprisingly enough is bloody lush, i thought it would be shite but suzi badgered me into it lol

[ScorchUK]

Mmm... quince jelly! My Nan had a bush in her garden, and we made this every year. Now there's a lady down the road from me who has a bush in her front garden, but never uses the fruit - such a shame to see them all rot...

[lidimy]

You should ask if you can have them, and repay her in jelly!

You never know, maybe she is just as upset as you but doesn't know how to use them

Lidi

[Cat]

Ohhh! It's the smell of the quinces that gets me, sort of perfumed as well as fruity. It doesn't translate well to the finished jelly, more's the pity.

I'm still getting over the barbarian bastards at one of the local Regency house-based hotels who have cut down a 300 year old mulberry because it was dropping berries on their customers' cars. BASTARDS!!!!!

Bucket and I have an annual pilgrimage to the Bishop's Palace at Wells, where we endeavour to eat our entrance fee's worth of mulberries. We caught another couple doing the same thing this year!

Oh, and with the hot hot summer of last year one of the nicest things i have ever scrumped was some figs from an old tree in a pub garden in Stroud. The'd been ripening on the pavement side of the wall, and were warm when I ate them. Drool.

[Theotherone]

When I worked at the London Chest Hospital there was a Mulberry tree in the grounds that, legend had it, Bishop Bonner used to sit under and watch the smoke rising from Smithfield. it had been bombed in WWII and split so was all shored up. It still used to produce loads of fruit.

Do Wimberries translate into scrolls Martin?

[Martin Cowley]

wimberries work really well, infact most berry fruit is quite good, just trawling the net for historical fruit sweet recipes, want to make them to supply to historic sites, been toying with the idea but really have to get of my *rse n sort it out lol

[Theotherone]

wimberries work really well,

What do English people call them?

[Martin Cowley]

erm dunno

[MissTrebuchet]

Fruit scrolls are brilliant! I bought some at a biker event last Bank Holiday in Builth Wells! I hope they are the same thing you folks are talking about.

I love them!