Vegetable
Balsam Pear
A tier
Balsam pear is an older English name for bitter melon, still on some Caribbean and older cookbooks. The fruit is the same Momordica, often the smoother or paler market type in those texts. Cook as bitter melon. The name is not a pear.
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Characteristics
Preparations
Island CookStir Fry
Traits
CaribbeanCaribbean TextsCookbook NameMomordicaNot A PearOlder EnglishSame BitterSame Gourd
History
GB
English writers called the gourd balsam pear in colonial botanical cookery.
Caribbean markets kept the balsam-pear name on some stalls.
Balsam pear lingered in older recipes beside karela and goya.