On Food and Cooking

and keep best if immediately wrapped and
refrigerated; pears are sold unripe and are best
ripened at relatively cool room temperatures,
then refrigerated without close wrapping.
The reddish colors of pome fruits (usually
in the skin but sometimes in the flesh) are due
mainly to water-soluble anthocyanin
pigments, their yellow and cream colors to
fat-soluble carotenoids, including beta-
carotene and lutein (pp. 257, 267). These
fruits are good sources of phenolic antioxidant
compounds (p. 267), particularly simple ones
(chlorogenic acid, also found in coffee),
which are especially concentrated in the skin.
Some apples have an antioxidant activity
equivalent to the vitamin C in 30 equal
portions of orange!
Apples and pears owe their primary flavors
to characteristic esters (see box, p. 355). The
flavors of pome fruits differ among varieties,
among fruits on different parts of a single
tree, and even within a single fruit, from top