Author Topic: Passe Crassane pear  (Read 3660 times)

SoCal2warm

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Passe Crassane pear
« on: April 14, 2019, 08:54:42 PM »
Here's a rare pear variety, 'Passe Crassane', which is actually a pear x quince hybrid



solid zone 10, Southern California
It did produce two fruits last year but they did not really fully ripen, and then fell off the tree. Neither of the fruits contained viable looking seeds.

shiro

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pvaldes

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #2 on: April 17, 2019, 03:32:39 PM »
Passe crassane is an old variety of european pear. Not a pear x quince mix at all. A big olive-green pear with a firm, sweet and crunchy white flesh. Late season and can be picked around nov-dec and eaten until february or even mars. Almost round and fat fruit (crassane means fatty) that keeps relatively well in the kitchen. Mine range from 185 to 365g.

Is a variety not recommended or even forbidden in some places, because is prone to the nasty Erwinia amylovora, but is a good pear.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2019, 03:43:52 PM by pvaldes »

SoCal2warm

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #3 on: April 17, 2019, 03:56:58 PM »
It is believed Passe Crassane is a pear-quince hybrid, but not known for sure. However, there are a number of things that point to that direction. Very dwarfed growing habit, parthenocarpic fruits, very good compatibility on quince (which the great majority of pear cultivars do not have, with the notable exception of Comice). Not to mention the very firm and hard fruits, notorious susceptibility to fireblight of this variety, several other things as well.

"...the passé-crassane, is actually a pear-quince hybrid that was developed in Normandy. It is particularly useful in cooking because of its firm, grainy flesh, but it is also tasty eaten raw." (The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What You Should Eat and Why, by Jonny Bowden, p144 )

pvaldes

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #4 on: April 17, 2019, 07:00:45 PM »
You can cross a pear and a quince and have a Pyronia veitchii for example, but is a very different plant retaining the isolated big quince flowers.

Passe crassane is totally different. I have it and there is not a single trait of quince on the plant. Is a typical Pyrus communis in all of their parts [flowers (colour, size, shape and the typical smell of fish), leaves (petiole, shape and texture), the bark, the skin and pear flavour]. Is not astringent at all like quince, the flesh is not particularly gritted and you can perfectly eat it directly from the tree.
« Last Edit: April 17, 2019, 07:04:15 PM by pvaldes »

shiro

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #5 on: April 17, 2019, 09:19:42 PM »
It is believed Passe Crassane is a pear-quince hybrid, but not known for sure. However, there are a number of things that point to that direction. Very dwarfed growing habit, parthenocarpic fruits, very good compatibility on quince (which the great majority of pear cultivars do not have, with the notable exception of Comice). Not to mention the very firm and hard fruits, notorious susceptibility to fireblight of this variety, several other things as well.

"...the passé-crassane, is actually a pear-quince hybrid that was developed in Normandy. It is particularly useful in cooking because of its firm, grainy flesh, but it is also tasty eaten raw." (The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth about What You Should Eat and Why, by Jonny Bowden, p144 )

No socal2warm.

There is a lot of PEAR compatible with Quince.
ex ( French variety ):
Olivier de serre
duc de bordeaux
beurré bollwiller
chaploux
citron des carmes
royal Vendée
bergamote esperen
etc etc etc...
So there are many more in addition to comice .

SoCal2warm

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pvaldes

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #7 on: April 18, 2019, 07:58:41 AM »
Yup, The passe crassane pear is exactly like in the photo linked above.
« Last Edit: April 18, 2019, 08:03:57 AM by pvaldes »

SoCal2warm

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #8 on: April 18, 2019, 09:22:50 AM »
Yup, The passe crassane pear is exactly like in the photo linked above.
The French article claims it was a cross between pear and quince.

This could just be a rumor, however. I am not able to find any original sources.


En 1855, à Rouen, le pépiniériste Louis Boisbunel a l'idée de croiser une poire avec un coing. Leur enfant est la passe-crassane. Elle a hérité d'un peu de la physionomie de son « père » : elle est très joufflue, presque ronde, parfois bosselée. Sa peau est jaune marbrée d'ocre. Vous trouverez cette poire, plutôt bon marché, de décembre à avril.

In 1855, in Rouen, the nurseryman Louis Boisbunel has the idea to cross a pear with a quince. Their child is the crassane passer. She inherited a little of the physiognomy of her "father": she is very chubby, almost round, sometimes bumpy. Its skin is yellow marbled with ocher. You will find this pear, rather cheap, from December to April.


also entry in L'Encyclopédie visuelle des aliments, 1996, Quebec, page 213 :
La poire passe crassane est originaire de France créée en 1855 lorsque l'arboriculteur normand Louis Boisbunel croisa une poire avec un coing. C'est la poire d'hiver par excellence, car elle se conserve facilement.
 
created in 1855 when the Norman arborist Louis Boisbunel crossed a pear with a quince. It's the ultimate winter pear because it can be preserved
« Last Edit: April 18, 2019, 09:35:41 AM by SoCal2warm »

shiro

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #9 on: April 22, 2019, 07:50:13 AM »
In France all specialists and also INRA declares the passe crassane as a PEAR.
It is not in any case a hybrid pear and Quince.
All the books of the time speaks of PEAR no hybrid.
so I think in the French books this would have been said by Mr Boisbunel.
And the INRA confirmed to me that it is simply a PEAR.


SoCal2warm

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #10 on: May 13, 2019, 02:17:52 AM »
whst was the taste like?
unfortunately didn't get a good chance to taste it because the fruits never seemed to fully develop and ripen, and were left on the tree too long trying to ripen and got kind of wrinkled skin. They were then left for a month to try to finish ripening inside, off the tree, but unfortunately it was no use.
It was probably because the tree is still immature and these were the very first fruits (maybe that combined with the lack of chill accumulation), the tree didn't have the energy to fully develop the fruits. Especially important for a hard Winter pear variety.

SoCal2warm

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2019, 03:25:07 PM »



SoCal2warm

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Re: Passe Crassane pear
« Reply #12 on: December 01, 2023, 03:07:18 AM »
I finally got to taste a pear off the tree that was more ripe. It seems you can't judge by the first fruits but will have to wait a few years for the tree to mature before the fruits start being able to develop a little bit more. Even after being developed, the fruit needs at least 11 days in storage to be able to ripen a little bit.

It's hard to describe exact taste and flavor but I'll try.

The texture, and a little bit of the flavor, seems half similar to an Asian pear. But other than that, it seems very similar to a Comice or Bartlett pear. But the flavor is a little bit different, still. From what I tasted, it has a little bit more tart sourness, which sort of intensifies the flavor in a way. It tasted a little bit over-ripe, yet paradoxically maybe not all the way fully ripe, a little bit of a more "fermented" flavor of an overripe pear, yet still with the grassiness of an underripe one. The flavor and aroma has a little bit of an ethereal "cotton candy" quality, maybe slightly perfumed like an Asian pear.
I also detected what I would say is a little bit of a ripe watermelon flavor as well, almost maybe a little bit like you would find in some figs.

Overall I would say, from what I tasted, I do prefer a good Comice or Bartlett pear more. But this did have a little bit of unique quality. I could still rate this pear as a 7 or 8 out of 10. It did have some of the "buttery" quality of European pears.

I suspect the flavor would have been better if the pear had been able to have more time to ripen on the tree. But for that, I think the tree will have to get more mature. The fruit I tasted did not really get that big, was rather on the small side for a typical pear.

The seeds in all of the fruits appear very small shriveled up and non-viable.

I do grow three rare varieties of quince that are edible raw (Karp's Sweet, Crimea, Kuganskaya). I cannot say for sure, but from what I am tasting, it does seem possible that this fruit could possibly be a hybrid. When I consider the more tart sourness of these edible quince varieties. I'd say it's at least 70 percent more pear-like than any of these quinces I have tasted. But I do think I can almost detect a little bit of a certain "yellow" quince flavor in there, mostly in the aftertaste.

The most remarkable thing, I would say, is that this tree is even able to produce fruits in climate zone 10. Even if it's obvious the fruits do not have as much vigor as they would if they got more winter chill. So I think the fruits might not be growing as fast or developing all the way or as fully as they would in a different climate with more winter chill. (The Karp's Sweet quince also managed to produce a very big fruit, in this climate, though I can tell the tree is not being very generous with fruit production)
« Last Edit: December 01, 2023, 03:22:41 AM by SoCal2warm »