What Can I Cook With Asian Pears? Good Questions

Q: I have several dozen small Asian pears. They are not the most edible things (they're kinda bitter and tasteless).

Any suggestions on what I can do so that they don't go to waste?

Sent by Jean

Editor: Jean, here's one idea for you: Use them to tenderize meat! We learned last year that Asian pears are a really excellent way to tenderize tough meat in a marinade. Here's one recipe where they are put to excellent use:

• Korean Barbecued Short-Ribs

Readers, other thoughts for Jean?

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(Image: Gregory Han)

Comments (13)

Toss it. I learned the hard way - with the crumble of death - that bitter, bad fruit cannot be made better by adding sugar.

Asian pears are not supposed to be bitter and tasteless! Good ones are sweet, crispy, and taste like a cross between a banana and a pear. You have bad ones. I agree w/DCarl1: toss them. Adding bad food to good food just wastes it all.

I treat asian pears kinda like a potato- curry dishes, fry them up w black beans, apple & cumin, etc.
Def more suited to savory dishes rather than sweet!

I second what everyone else is saying! Asian pears are supposed to taste sweet and juicy. I'd compost those.

Asian pears are great in salads. But if yours are bitter, don't eat them. They are supposed to be very sweet, juicy and crisp. The bitterness is a grower's problem.

http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/article/46/

I think if you leave it a little they will sweeten a bit, but I use mine for korean bbq marinades, and if they don't ripen up, the texture is pretty close to jicama, so you might be able to toss them in some salads for a nice crunch :)

+1 to what everyone else is saying: Asian pears (or nashi) are supposed to be mildly sweet and extremely crunchy and juicy. they should not be bitter! toss em.

That's funny, I've never had a bitter or tasteless Asian pear. They were all sweet and incredibly refreshing on warm days.

ehh.. I have to say you got the bad ones.... asian pears are very crispy and sweet, (frankly I think they are much more edible than most other pears...) One thing you could do it just boil them for a little while with brown sugar. That's a simple sweet soup very healthy for autumn.

Aw - too bad they didn't turn out! I have a tree in my back yard, and the fruit is just amazing!

In Korea, I used to eat Asian pears because they weren't as expensive and small as they are here. They were huge, juicy, incredibly sweet and crispy fruits. Oh how I miss them.

if you decide to try them again in the future, i love them in salads and on crazy fusion tacos like these;
http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/crunchy-tofu-tacos

They may need to ripen. Leave them on the counter for a few days or so.