[Sca-cooks] Period pear varieties?

Barbara Benson voxeight at gmail.com
Sun Nov 2 11:59:53 PST 2008


I would have to dig up my actual documentation, but I made pear
preserves for an A&S entry once and had to look into this subject.
(Actually, the entry was several mustards, one of which called for
pear preserves so the info was in an appendix to the documentation)

I was able to find Forelle pears in my local Farmer's Market and they
appear to be a near period variety (from the 1600's) ... hmmm here is
the info:

"Forelles are a very old variety, and are thought to have originated
sometime in the 1600's in northern Saxony, Germany. The name Forelle
translates to mean "trout" in the German language. It is believed that
the variety earned this name because of the similarity between the
pear's brilliant red lenticles and the colors of a Rainbow trout.."
Pear Bureau Northwest. Forelle Pears - History.

Not from a source that anyone would consider the utmost of
documentation - but a good jumping off point I believe. Sekles appear
to be of American origin in the late 18th early 19th century.

Hope this can get you started!
Ciao!

--
Serena da Riva

> All the discussion of period apples has got me wondering about pears.  Here in Oklahoma, we only get Bartlett's (green and red), d'Anjou, and Bosc.  For the first time yesterday I found seckle (sp?), which were tiny and wonderfully sweet but with a bitterish skin.  Is this a period variety?  Are any period varieties of pears available in the U.S.?
>
> Talana



More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list