Perry pear

Pyrus communis · Pome fruit

40 pairings

A perry pear is a small, hard, high-tannin pear (Pyrus communis) grown not to eat but to ferment into perry — the pear counterpart of cider. Sharp, bitter and often barely edible raw, its juice carries the tannin, acid and sorbitol that give perry its body, and its own centuries-old orcharding tradition sits quite apart from the dessert pear.

Picking a good onedrag

Rock-hard, pips still paleSleepy, brown wet core

Just droppedThe pressing window: full tannin and acid, still firm enough to give up its juice.Press it

Cut faceWhite to cream all through, pips black

Squeeze at the shoulderGives a little, springs back

Stalk and stem endStalk gone, socket clean and dry

SmellSweet pear with a little honey

Reading a just ripe one. Move the slider and the rest of this page — nutrition, pairings — re-scores with it.

What one gives you

60%

Juice yield

about 600 ml a kilo, milled and rested

Keeping ittap a band

A domestic fridge holds it about 4× longer than the counter.

Humidity

90-95%

Crates or a lidded box in a cold shed; dry air shrivels the skin and costs you juice at the press.

Airflow

Loose, one layer deep

Sweat them spread out, not in a deep heap: piled fruit heats, and the pears underneath rot at the core unseen.

Ripens its neighbours, and itself

A climacteric pear: it gives off ethylene that ripens and yellows whatever sits beside it, and softens faster itself near other fruit.

Preparing