Glossary · Fruit
Bletting
Definition
The softening and internal browning of fruit after ripening, in which cell walls break down, starch and tannin change, and flesh becomes soft and sweet. Perry pears in particular are often used at or near this stage.
- Subject
- Fruit
In more detail
Bletting is distinct from rotting: it is a physiological change, not a microbial one, though rot follows quickly if it goes too far. For perry it is a narrow window — the fruit must be soft enough to press well and to have converted its starch, but not so far gone that acetic bacteria and moulds have taken hold. The trade saying that a perry pear is ready for a day is an exaggeration of a genuine problem.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Fruit
Sweating
Holding harvested fruit in a heap or a shed for days or weeks before milling, so that starch converts to sugar, flesh softens and moisture is lost.
Fruit
Ripeness
The stage at which fruit has completed starch conversion, reached its characteristic sugar and softened enough to press. For cider fruit it is judged later than for dessert fruit, often at or after natural drop.
Perry
Perry pear
A pear cultivar grown for fermentation rather than for eating, characterised by high tannin, high acid or both, small size, and flesh too hard and astringent for the table.
Fruit
Starch-iodine test
A field test for ripeness in which a cut apple is stained with iodine solution: starch turns blue-black, so the extent of the unstained area shows how far starch has converted to sugar.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
Perry Pears
L. C. Luckwill and A. Pollard (eds), published for the National Fruit and Cider Institute by the University of Bristol, 1963 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25 · covers 1963
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library, which records the work as Luckwill, 1963, published for the National Fruit and Cider Institute by the University of Bristol. The catalogue entry names Luckwill alone where the standard citation names Luckwill and Pollard as joint editors; CiderHQ keeps both names and records the discrepancy rather than silently following one catalogue. This is the foundational descriptive work on English perry pears and the ancestor of most later variety lists. No copy was opened: it is sixty years old, out of print, and held in research libraries rather than in open digital collections.
The New Cider Maker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers
Claude Jolicoeur, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013. ISBN 9781603584739 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against the Open Library union catalogue: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013, ISBN 9781603584739, one edition recorded. That establishes the citation points at a real book in a stated edition, which is what a citation needs and is all it establishes. No copy was opened and nothing is quoted from it. The book itself is in print and not digitised in any open collection; where CiderHQ needs a figure from this territory it uses an accessible research source instead and says so.