As an all-purpose fruit, Anjou pear is delicious for slicing fresh to make salads, pureeing for smoothies or sauces, and baking into cakes.
Thus, its buttery and compact flesh with gritty texture will hold up perfectly for various cooking methods.
Furthermore, be familiar with this mild-flavored pear to know the best time to eat the fruit and how to cook it to create many tasty dishes.
Besides, you can try to cultivate the tree in your garden to harvest the year-round Pyrus Anjou by following the planting guide in this article.
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Anjou Pear Identification
Pyrus communis ‘D’Anjou’ or the European pear comes in a medium size that reaches 3 inches in diameter.
This egg-shaped fruit is squat and short with a large spherical shape at the bottom part. Then, it tapers gradually to a small rounded upper body.
Besides, the Anjou pear has bright green skin color with a red flush. When the fruit is ripe, its juicy flesh brings a delicate sweetness that comes with a slight lemon-lime taste.
Since this pear does not change the color while ripening, you can touch the fruit to determine whether it is ready to eat or not.
Press the top part near the stem, and the ripe one has a soft surface. If this condition occurs n the bottom half portion, the flesh will be over-ripe.
Pyrus Anjou Cultivars
There are two cultivars of Anjou pear, the green, and red variety. Generally, both types serve the same taste and characteristics, except the skin color.
The original cultivar is green anjou pear. It is the default skin color that usually appears a yellowish-green hue with reddish blushes.
Until the fruit becomes fully ripe, the coloration remains the same, but the neck or the upper portion will be more tender.
Furthermore, red Anjou pear is the other cultivar with different skin color from the common European Pyrus.
It started to be popular in the nineteenth century. This variety brings the same flavor, shape, and soft skin as the green one.
Interesting Facts of the European Pear
Anjou pear is a winter variety that belongs to the family Rosaceae. The Loire Valley becomes its initial growing region in France.
Interestingly, this cultivar is one of the most notable fruit in the US. The ripeness occurs from the inside out, so checking the neck will show the ripening level.
The raw pears usually turn to be ripe for three or five days. Storing the fruits in the fridge will keep them last for seven months. However, the refrigerator will not stop the ripening but slowing down the process.
Moreover, harvesting season starts in early October and provides abundant crops during summer.
The pears become famous among professional chefs since they are available all year-round. Also, these juicy fruits are versatile for culinary purposes.
Anjou Pear Nutrition
Do you realize that Anjou pear contains high nutritional value?
This mild-flavored fruit consists of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, and fats. Other nutrients include ash, tocopherol, and water.
Per serving, this fruit is rich in folate, riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin A, B2, B6, C, E, and K. It also contains sugar (fructose, glucose, and sucrose) and a few amounts of fiber.
Meanwhile, some minerals include calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, sodium, potassium, and zinc.
Thus, it is free from low-density lipoprotein and suitable for healthy daily consumption. The Anjou pear juice also becomes the first puree for babies due to the hypoallergenic agents.
Anjou Pear Recipes
Anjou pear is an excellent ingredient to create various dishes. You may choose different ripening level to achieve the best shape and texture in cooking.
The underripe Pyrus works nicely to cook with a high heating process. Meanwhile, the ripe one will be mushy after being cooked.
Besides consuming fresh and cooked, the fruit functions as pizza toppings, soups, and a great complement of meats and vegetables.
Some delicious recipes with the European Pyrus are double gouda fondue, red Anjou pie, and prosciutto pear cups.
Double Gouda Fondue
This recipe combines fresh sliced green and red Anjou pear varieties with creamy fondue.
The dipping needs pear cider, grated gouda cheese, cornstarch, nutmeg, salt, and black pepper. Then, mix all ingredients until you achieve a wonderful creaminess.
After finishing the fondue, serve it with some sliced pears for an appetizer. If necessary, enjoy the recipe with some toasted bread or roasted vegetables.
Red Anjou Pie
It is the best time to make a pie if you have lots of firm-ripe Anjou pear.
Slice the fruits and prepare other ingredients such as juiced lemon, sugar, flour, cinnamon, pastry dough, and butter. Besides, you might add dried apricots and chopped pecans.
Firstly, toss the pears with lemon while heating the oven. Then, combine all dry materials in a bowl. After that, mix them with the fruits and pour into the pie crust.
Add butter before covering the top with the pastry shell. Next, create a wavy shape by crimping the edges.
The last step is baking the pastry dough until becoming golden brown for about 50 minutes. Cool it on a rack before serving. Enjoy this yummy Anjou pear pie with a cup of tea or coffee.
Prosciutto Pear Cups
Are you looking for a tasty and easy appetizer? Try prosciutto Anjou pear cups that come with simple complement ingredients.
You need 227 grams of dry-cured salted Italian ham, 8 ounces of Mascarpone cheese, and six fresh basil leaves.
The first step is to preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Then, cut the ham to make 24 pieces of small squares.
Put one slice into a cup. Here, you can use a cupcake pan or mug. After that, bake the cup-shaped prosciutto for about 15 minutes.
Then, put the baked ham on a rack to let them cool before going on to the next step. Next, scoop some Mascarpone cheese onto each cup.
Add toppings from Anjou pear slices and basil leaves. Finally, you can serve this delicious dish before having a meal.
How to Grow Anjou Pear Tree
After knowing some nutritional facts and tasty recipes of Anjou pear, are you going to cultivate the Pyrus tree?
It is a semi-dwarf plant that reaches a height of 5 meters. Fortunately, this easy-to-harvest variety is drought and cold resistant.
Likewise, Anjou pear trees have an ornamental look and become tremendous plants. The glossy green foliage transforms into yellow and red hues in the fall season.
Also, their spring blossoms come with creamy-white scented flowers. The pollinators help them to set large fruits.
The pear tree that is not self-pollinating needs another variety that has a similar blooming time like Bartlett or Moonglow to produce fruits. Therefore, prepare two different cultivars for cross-pollinating.
Furthermore, you can choose different growing techniques that include propagating by seeds, grafting, or chip budding.
To deal with grafted trees, keep away the inner part of the graft connection from sunlight exposure while cultivating.
Then, if you prefer growing the European Pyrus trees in large pots, remove the containers and curving roots.
The best planting season is when the plants are neglected in spring. Prepare a well-drained area with full sun exposure. Also, maintain the soil at a pH of 6 or 7.
Next, dig a deep hole to hold the spreading roots. Add some mounds of the soil before placing the plant.
It does not require fertilizer and topsoil to cover the surface. If you want to grow another plant, give spacing about 4.6 meters apart for each specimen.
Pear Tree Care Guide
The first thing to do after you successfully cultivate the Anjou pear trees, routine watering is a must to develop new roots.
Then, apply fertilizer in the initial year for about 57 grams of ammonium nitrate for each plant. Reduce fertilizing the tree if the planting area has fertile soil.
The next year, if the foliage is turning yellow or pale green in summer, add more fertilizer. However, when there is a fast growth of about 30 cm every year, reduce the ammonium nitrate for the following season.
Importantly, do not over-fertilizing the plants to avoid fire blight. Too much fertilizer will promote developing more leaves than blossoms and fruits.
Additionally, take care of the Anjou pear plants by regular pruning to keep them in healthy conditions. Prune these dwarf trees to the center part to improve productivity and attractive appearance.
Start training the branches on the central stem to keep them spreading outward instead of upward.
Use wooden slats or spreaders to shape the twigs. Also, thinning the fruits is important by spacing the cluster about 15 cm on each shoot.
Indeed, well-maintained Anjou pear trees will have vigor growth and resist pests and diseases. Unhealthy plants are prone to mites, aphids, fire blight, psylla pyricola, and powdery mildew.
Use pesticide spray if necessary, and remove the damaged parts from the tree for the best treatment.
In conclusion, among other varieties in the world, the Anjou pear is the most popular fruit that becomes multi-functional culinary uses.
Own this prolific producer by growing the plant in your garden. Then, get ready to have long-lasting crops all year-round.