Look! Wax-Dipped Pears in France

Here's a small, colorful note from my time in France last week. At the market some of the pears had dabs of something bright and scarlet on top. What was it?

It turns out that all of the stems were dipped in wax to seal them. My market tour guide, Rosa Jackson, told me later in the week that this was done to keep the pears from ripening too quickly.

I've never seen this done in the States - have you? Does anyone know why keeping the stem sealed prevents ripening? Pears are one of the trickiest fruits to ripen; they start out unpleasantly hard and astringent, and it seems like they are at their peak for one elusive moment before they descend into mush.

We did discover one guide to ripening and caring for pears from a website that shows this practice:
• The Simple Pleasures of Conserving Fruits for Winter

We poached pears like these in red wine while in France; check out a similar recipe below.

Comments (5)

Instead of red wax on the stems, apples (and other fruits, vegetables) are sprayed with a wax barrier to keep them from spoiling - this gives them that unnatural shine as well.

This is done in the States, but in a different way - whole fruits are sprayed or dipped in thin, clear wax to keep them from ripening too quickly. Yet another reason to wash your produce before eating...

Stems on pears are especially important in ripening, though. I was always told you should never buy a pear without an intact stem because it would never ripen properly without it. I'd assume this has something to do with whatever amazing natural sensors the stem has inside!

My neighbors have pear trees and gave us a couple. They were rock hard and I wondered if they'd ever ripen. This morning I saw something gooey and shiny on my apples in our hanging basket. Sure enough, it's sugary pear juice that had erupted out of the stems and drizzled down onto my apples. I have never seen this before! It's true about the "one elusive moment" because now, the entire side of one is mush and the others don't seem much better. Sad!

HOW does one buy pears at the grocery store? Are they SUPPOSED to be so rock hard? I would love some pear-buying tips!

The trick, I think, is to immediately refrigerate the pears when they reach that "elusive moment". Leave them in the fridge until right before you consume them (ie don't take them in your purse to work--the 25 minute commute is too long and too rough on the skins). Once they're in the fridge, though, I've found that mine keep relatively well.