We know that tangy Granny Smith apples cause many more reactions than the many mild apple varieties, but what about pears? At present Woolworths are promoting pears by giving a free copy of the beautiful book “Australian Pears”, Volume 3 when you buy a kilogram. Get yourself one! In the front pages it contains pictures of all varieties with notes on their taste and how to best use them. I strongly recommend you use this to note which pears you like more and whether you feel there is any difference in tolerance. The book notes that the Winter Nelis are very sweet, as are the Bosc. Packham and Josephine are considered the tastiest with their ‘rich flavour’. The Red Anjou is reported to have a ‘mint after taste’ so we can wonder if that means it contains more salicylate. Remember the wise little boy who noted that fruit has a ‘smell on the outside and on the inside’ so maybe some of these flavour differences are more in the peel than the flesh. What do you think?
As a further note “Australian Pears” contains beautiful recipes with wonderful photos. As their chefs what to make the dishes very tasty they have lots of high salicylate ingredients, but with a little thinking you can adapt them, or use them to test a different flavour which you may use occasionally. For example you could make the Pear and Passionfruit Jam with half the passionfruit and use Myer rather than Lisbon lemons. Enjoy! Joan Breakey
Leave a Reply