Nashi pear

Pyrus spp.

fruit

An Asian pear as round as an apple, crisp and full of juice, from a pear tree of the Yangtze valley domesticated since Antiquity. It provides pectins.

Origin

East Asia

Season (United States)

all year round · grows in your region

Preparation

The core and pips are left, as with a pear. Its skin is eaten, and that is where its polyphenols sit: worth keeping, then — but under running water, rubbing it, which is what takes off most of what settles there, organic or not.

Molecules

Pectins

Did you know?

Japanese, Chinese “sand” and Korean pears are thought to descend from one wild pear tree; only the Chinese “white” pears have kept a pear shape.