Bletting

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Bletting (or blet) is a term used to refer to certain fleshy fruits when they have gone past ripe and started to decay and ferment. There are some fruits which are either considered at their best after some bletting, such as Twentieth Century Asian Pears, or which can only be eaten after bletting, such as Medlars, Persimmons and True Service Fruit.

Ripe medlars, for example, are taken from the tree and spread on some absorptive material (like straw, sawdust, or bran) somewhere cool, and allowed to decay for several weeks. Ideally, they are harvested from the tree immediately following a hard frost, which jumpstarts the bletting process by breaking down cell walls and speeding decay. Once the process is complete, the flesh will have broken down to the point where it can be spooned out of the skin. The sticky mush substance tastes like something in between sweet dates and a dry applesauce, with perhaps a hint of cinnamon.[1]

The English verb to blet was coined by John Lindley, in his Introduction to Botany (1848), based on a French word used in connection with overripe pears. "After the period of ripeness," he wrote, "most fleshy fruits undergo a new kind of alteration; their flesh either rots or blets."[2]

In Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, he alluded to bletting when he wrote (IV. iii. 167) "They would haue married me to the rotten Medler."

There is also an old saying that goes "time and straw make the medlars ripe," referring to the bletting process.