Pyrus x domestica

Medik

Pear

Rosaceae Edible: Fruit

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Description

A temperate tree in the Rosaceae family, the common pear, with edible fruit.

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Edible Uses

Apple varieties can be grouped as cooking apples, eating apples, and cider apples, the last so astringent as to be "almost inedible". Apples are consumed as juice, raw in salads, baked in pies, cooked into sauces and apple butter, or baked. They are sometimes used as an ingredient in savory foods, such as sausage and stuffing. Several techniques are used to preserve apples and apple products. Traditional methods include drying and making apple butter. Juice and cider are produced commercially; cider is a significant industry in regions such as the West of England and Normandy. A toffee apple (UK) or caramel apple (US) is a confection made by coating an apple in hot toffee or caramel candy respectively and allowing it to cool. Apples and honey are a ritual food pairing eaten during the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah. Apples are an important ingredient in many desserts, such as pies, crumbles, and cakes. When cooked, some apple cultivars easily form a puree known as apple sauce, which can be cooked down to form a preserve, apple butter. They are often baked or stewed, and are cooked in some meat dishes. Apples are milled or pressed to produce apple juice, which may be drunk unfiltered (called apple cider in North America), or filtered. Filtered juice is often concentrated and frozen, then reconstituted later and consumed. Apple juice can be fermented to make cider (called hard cider in North America), ciderkin, and vinegar. Through distillation, various alcoholic beverages can be produced, such as applejack, Calvados, and apple brandy.