The pear is the edible pome fruit with a sweet and sweet taste, produced by the common pear (Pyrus communis L.), tree of the Rosaceae family.
The term "pear" also designates by extension the fruit of any tree of the genus Pyrusn. Among the 68 species of Pyrus (The Plant List1, 2019), relatively few are cultivated for their edible fruits. Apart from the common European pear, five Asian species of wild pear are said to have produced cultivars: the three main species usually cited are Pyrus pyrifolia, Pyrus bretschneideri and Pyrus ussuriensis, while the secondary cultivars come from Pyrus sinkiangensis Y.T. Yu, Xinjiangn pear, Pyrus x phaeocarpa and Pyrus pashia, pear cultivated in North India, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, and southern China (Yunnan).
We adopt the terminology of researchers who refer to "European pears" as the fruit from the cultivars of Pyrus communis and "Asian pears" to the fruit produced by cultivars from Asian wild ancestors, in particular Pyrus pyrifolia, Pyrus bretschneideri and Pyrus ussuriensis.
There are several thousand cultivated varieties of pear trees. The world's largest producer is China, which produced 16.5 million tonnes of Asian pears in 2017. The European Union, with 2.5 million tonnes of European apples, comes in second. In France the common pear is the sixth most consumed fruit. Characteristically oblong and rounded at its base, the European pear is generally green, yellow, red or red in color, the very old Worcester pear being black. Asian pears are often whitish yellow and sublime in shape.
European pear is most often eaten when ripe, raw, cooked or dried, its juice being used as is and in the fermented form of a cider called perry. In East Asia, especially in China, Japan and Korea, pears are used as a traditional folk remedy to relieve alcoholism, constipation and cough.
Its name comes from the low Latin pira, plural neutral, taken for a singular feminine (classical Latin pĭrum), of the same meaning. The old French was peire, father remained in the dialects of the west of France (cf. Norman pei [re]). In Occitan, its name is pera (pero) of the same origin, Italian pera, Spanish pera which also go back to popular Latin. The Germanic languages borrowed the etymon of the vulgar Latin: English pear (reinforced by the Norman), Dutch peer, German Birne, late and altered form of the South of Germany. The Celtic word is also a borrowing from Latin: Breton per (enn), Welsh peren, Irish piorra. The Latin term is of unknown origin.
In Chinese the character lí denotes "pear" (or "pear"). The first occurrences are encountered during the Warring States period (-475; -221), in Confucian texts such as the Classic of Liji or Taoist rites (Zhuangzi) etc. The first Shuowen Jiezi character dictionary, written in the 11th century, indicates "fruit name, formed from the key mu " tree "and the phonetic part li 𥝤 n.
Food
We distinguish between mouth pears, cooking pears and cider pears. Food pears are the most common on stalls.
When it is perfectly ripe, it can be eaten as it is, with or without its skin. The dessert consisting of a pear in syrup, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and hot chocolate is called "Poire Belle Hélène". You can make compotes, charlottes, mousses and bavarois18.
Fermented pear juice makes a slightly alcoholic drink called perry.
Pears can also be used to make brandy. The best known of these is obtained from Williams pear, the alcohol produced is commonly called Williamine or colloquially pear. The Williamine bottle most often contains a pear in the center. To do this, the producers introduce the young shoots of pears still hanging on the pear tree in bottles which they hang on the branches. Growing up, the pear becomes impossible to stand out. The remaining space is filled with Williamine.
They can be dried for consumption during periods of low production or for specific culinary preparations. It takes 3 to 4 kg of fresh pears, picked slightly before maturity, peeled (keeping the peduncle), sulfur, dried and pressed, to obtain a kilo of dried pears.
In France the drying of pears is infrequent; where appropriate the varieties Curé, Virgouleuse, Sarrazin and others give good results. See also the tapped pear.
Drying is much more widespread in Switzerland, especially for the Langbirne or Etrangle varieties.
In Europe dried pears are produced industrially in Tyrol, Styria, Istria, Illyria, Bohemia, Moravia, Württemberg ... which supply beyond the Baltic. Varieties with a long peduncle are preferably used (Rousselet, Beurré from England in Switzerland; Rousselet, Verte-longue, Spitzbirne, Glasbirne on the banks of the Rhine). A medium quality pear, the Bougeotte, is produced on the banks of the Saône and sent to Franche-Comté to dry it.
In the Lower Engadine region of Switzerland, dried pears are an essential ingredient in Scuol bread, known as "pan grond".