With their delicate taste, and easy availability, pears are ideal fodder for salads, desserts and with cheese, as our pear recipes show. The only problem is that they're not eaten enough, but you can change this!
If there was a competition to win the title of 'favourite English fruit', pears would come second to apples, their more robust cousins. But in the past they were considered far superior. Pears are more delicate in many ways: in their curvy shape, soft, succulent flesh and subtle taste, and they’re less hardy, but this fruit grows well in the British climate, and are plentiful in number and variety – there are over 550 different types. It’s a versatile fruit too – there are pears for cooking, for desserts, and for making perry (fermented pear juice, similar to cider). The varieties available differ depending on the season (August-March).
What makes pears so quintessentially English (though they have featured in the diets of many cultures from antiquity; from Europe, to the Romans, to China) is that they can withstand the cool British weather. And like the quirky weather, some of the British varieties have quirky names (Bloody Bastard, anyone?). But you won’t often find these strangely-named delights on the supermarket shelves – the vast majority of pears sold in the UK are just three varieties, and most of those are imported. If you want to diversify, go to farmers’ markets, local growers, or grow your own, and buy organic if you can; pears are often treated with preservative chemicals.
Pears are not picked ripe (if you eat a pear which has been left to ripen on the tree, it will have a gritty texture as a result of the sugars turning to starch); they are meant to ripen in your fruit bowl and will do so quicker if placed next to bananas. When buying don't be put off by the brown markings on the skin; this is known as russeting and it's normal. If you don't want to eat them immediately, they last longer stored in the fridge.
The nutritional content of pears is not particularly impressive but they're one of the few foods that are safe to eat for allergy sufferers, making them a perfect staple for people on exclusion diets.
- Pears come canned (great for pies), or you can stew them, juice them, eat them dried, or make jam
- Go for a crisp pear with hard cheese
- Create a sumptuous dessert by gently poaching them in wine and cinnamon; serve with mascarpone or vanilla ice cream
- Pears go beautifully with chocolate.