When the pears are cut open the look as iff they are rotting from the inside out. Could this be due to age? I have found a reference that syas brown core can be due to high CO2,,,but what causes high CO2?
Pears that are picked too ripe will rot from the inside. Pick them when still green just when the stem breaks cleanly from the spur.
Controlled-atmosphere (ca) storage can involve high CO2, so pears in the market out of season (like now, unless they're from the southern hemisphere,) have come out of ca storage. I usually set my pears on the counter a couple days to ripen to perfection, and if I let them sit for too many days, I may bite into one with the core going rotten. That happened last time I did so, because they were about ready to eat when I bought them (beautiful yellow Concorde, I couldn't resist.)
