Poir-fect Pear: Williams' Bon Chrétien aka Bartlett

The Williams' pear is more commonly known in the states as the Bartlett, and is the most readily available of the varieties I've posted so far. Here in Michigan, the staples tend to be Bartlett, Bosc and D'Anjou pears, as far as commercial varieties go.

 

Unfortunately I am not a huge fan of the Williams' pear. When ripe, its flavor edges toward simple and almost flat, with powerful citrus notes coming from the skin that really dominate the senses. It certainly doesn't hold the subtleties that the other varieties I've written about do.

It's still a very old pear, which makes it worth writing about (at least on the blog), and is thought to have originated in the late 1760's in Aldermaston, England. I ended up making juice from some of these as well, but found the juice to be cloyingly sweet with little else to offer. I used it to mix with some strawberry juice and it worked really well as a sweetener and the inclusion of the pear skins kept the flavor really bright.