- 1/2kg pitted and split loquats
- 2 cups of water
- 1 tablespoon of ‘cal’
- 1.5kg mostly white but some brown sugar
- 1.5kg of water
After splitting the loquats and removing the pits and pith, soak them in a couple cups of water and a tablespoon of Mexican cooking lime, aka ‘cal.’ This is not lime the fruit, but the highly toxic chemical powder, the same stuff that makes corn meal gooey enough to roll into tortillas. After six hours or so of soaking, remove the loquats from the highly alkaline water, and they should now have a slightly more coherent structure which will prevent them from completely dissolving when boiled in a thick syrup for a long time. Rinse thoroughly. Now place the loquats into the solution of sugar water and start a low and slow boil, for hours and hours. Some recipes say seven hours! Eventually there will be no water left, and the loquats will be more sugar than fruit. The result is good for snacks or for use in fruitcakes later in the year when you have more pecans than you know what to do with.
