Your celebrity cooks are missing wonderful opportunities to improve our appreciation of fruit. Claire Ptak (Pear necessities, Cook, 8 October) is incorrect that Williams pears are now “at their peak”, as this acme was earlier in September, and the only other alternative variety she suggests, Comice, will be at their best next month. There are dozens of other varieties of pear that can be grown in Britain, with some, like Winter Nelis, having their season after Christmas. We have alas lost most of the many hundreds of varieties which nurserymen could offer in the 19th century, but if cooks encouraged us to look beyond the scandalously few we can expect from supermarkets, we could be not only informed, but might be able to ask for the sorts that are in danger of being killed off by the easy varieties like Conference pears which keep so well. We could also learn that some varieties cook much better than others – who could expect to make a pie of Bramley apples and Cox’s orange pippins and get the same result?
Simon Barley
Hope Valley, Derbyshire
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