A choke pear or chocky-pear is an

astringent An astringent (sometimes called adstringent) is a chemical that shrinks or constricts body tissues. The word derives from the Latin '' adstringere'', which means "to bind fast". Astringency, the dry, puckering or numbing mouthfeel caused by t ...

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

. The term is used for the fruit of any variety of

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in late summer into mid-autumn. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosaceae, bearing the Pome, po ...

which has an astringent taste and is difficult to swallow.

Varieties

One variety of choke pear is poire d'Angoisse, a variety of pear that was grown in

Angoisse Angoisse (; ) is a commune in the Dordogne department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Population See also *Communes of the Dordogne department The following is a list of the 503 communes of the Dordogne department of Fran ...

, a commune in the

Arrondissement of Nontron The arrondissement of Nontron is an arrondissement of France in the Dordogne department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. It has 94 communes. Its population is 54,127 (2021), and its area is . Composition The communes of the arrondissement of No ...

Dordogne Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, which was hard, bad tasting, and almost impossible to eat raw. In the words of L'Académie française, the pear is "''si âpre et si revèche au goût qu'on a de la peine à l'avaler''" ("so harsh and crabbed of taste that one can only with difficulty swallow it"). These qualities, and the common meaning of ''angoisse'' in

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

("anguish") apparently originated the French idiom ''avaler des poires d'angoisse'' ("swallow pears of Angoisse/anguish") meaning "to suffer great displeasures". Possibly because of this idiom, the names "choke pear" and " pear of anguish" have been used for a gagging device allegedly used in Europe, sometime before the 17th century. Dalechamps has identified this with the species of pear that

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

listed as "ampullaceum" in his ''

Naturalis Historia The ''Natural History'' () is a Latin work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work' ...

''. It, like most sour-tasting pear cultivars, was most likely used to make

perry Perry or pear cider is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears, traditionally in England (particularly Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire), parts of South Wales, France (especially Normandy and Anjou), Canada, Austral ...

Similar fruits

Similarly named trees with astringent fruits include the choke cherry (the common name for several species of

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet '' Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The na ...

tree that grow in North America and whose fruits are small and bitter tasting: ''Prunus virginiana'', ''Prunus demissa'', and ''Prunus serotina'') and the choke plum.

References

External links

* Pears Roman cuisine Plant common names {{fruit-stub