Why apple skin is waxier than pear skin

HostI was looking at the fruit bowl this morning and noticed that when I rub an apple on my sleeve, it shines up like it has been polished. But when I try that with a pear, it just looks dull and stays kind of rough.

HostWhy is there such a big difference in how their skins feel?

GuestIt's a bit like they're wearing two different kinds of outfits for two different jobs. That greasy layer on the apple is actually a natural fat the fruit makes itself. We call it a bloom. Even wild apples have it. It's a mix of different natural oils that the apple pumps out to the surface of its skin as it grows. The reason it feels so much thicker on an apple is that the apple is built to be a long distance traveler. It needs to stay fresh for months, even through a cold winter. That wax works like a seal on a jar, keeping all the juice locked inside so the fruit doesn't shrivel up and turn into a raisin.

HostI always assumed the grocery store was just spraying them with stuff to make them look pretty under the lights. Is it mostly just the fruit doing it?

GuestWell, stores do add a tiny bit more sometimes because washing the fruit before it gets to the shop can strip away that natural layer. But even without that, the apple is a wax making machine. Pears are different. If you look really closely at a pear, you'll see tiny little dots all over the skin. Those are like little breathing holes. A pear is much more open to the air around it than an apple is. Because those holes stay open, the pear can't really hold onto a thick layer of wax the same way. The wax would just clog the holes and mess with how the fruit breathes. This is why a pear feels more like skin or leather, while the apple feels like a candle.

HostSo the apple is basically holding its breath to stay alive longer?

GuestThat's a great way to put it. The apple is much better at slowing down its own life. Inside that waxy shell, the apple is using up its sugar very slowly. It's trying to stay asleep. But the pear is much more active. It's letting air in and out through those pores, which means it's burning through its energy much faster. That's why you can leave an apple on the counter for a couple of weeks and it's fine, but a pear goes from rock hard to mushy in about two days. It doesn't have that heavy raincoat to keep the world out.

HostI have noticed that even when a pear gets really ripe, it never gets that shine. But some apples get so waxy they almost feel sticky.

GuestYeah, that stickiness usually happens as the apple gets older. It's the fruit's way of trying even harder to stop water from leaking out. As the apple ripens, it changes the kind of fats it sends to the surface. It starts making more of the greasy stuff and less of the hard, flaky stuff. It's like the apple is trying to put on an extra thick coat of grease to stay juicy as it gets closer to the end of its life. Pears don't bother with that because they have a different trick for strength. If you have ever bitten into a pear and felt those little gritty bits that feel like sand, those are what we call stone cells. They make the skin tough without needing to make it waxy. The pear uses those hard bits to keep its shape and protect itself, while the apple relies on that slick shield.

HostIt seems like the pear is just a lot more fragile then. If it doesn't have the wax and it has those breathing holes, it's just losing water all the time.

GuestIt really is. A pear is basically a fruit that lives fast and dies young. If you take a pear and put it in a room with very dry air, it'll start to look like an old person's face within a few days because the water is just flying out of those pores. The apple can sit in the same room and stay smooth and tight for a month. It's all down to how they handle the air. The apple wants to be a closed system, a little bubble of juice that nothing can get into or out of. The pear is more of an open book. It's letting gas move back and forth, and that makes it much more sensitive to the world around it.

HostDoes the wax also help keep things out, like germs or mold?

GuestDefinitely. Think about how a drop of water beads up and rolls right off a shiny apple. That's a huge deal in the wild. If water sits on the skin of a fruit, it's like an open door for rot and tiny bugs to move in. By being waxy, the apple keeps itself dry even when it rains. Pears struggle with this more, which is why they often have that rougher, browner skin. That brown stuff is basically like a scab. When the pear skin gets tiny cracks from the rain or the sun, it grows that brown, corky layer to heal itself. Apples don't have to do that as much because their wax keeps the water from ever touching the actual skin in the first place.

HostIt's weird to think that the shine I see on my desk at lunch is actually the apple trying to hide from the rain.

GuestIt's a total survival kit. The apple is built to wait for a deer or a bear to find it months after it falls off the tree, so it needs to stay perfect as long as possible. The pear is built to be eaten almost as soon as it's ready, so it doesn't spend the energy making a thick, waxy coat that it won't need for very long.

HostEvery time I polish an apple now, I'm going to think about how much work it's doing to stay juicy.

GuestThat greasy film is the only thing standing between a crisp bite and a dry, shriveled mess.

HostThat shiny skin makes sense now, not as a way to look pretty for a lunchbox, but as a tiny suit of armor that lets an apple wait out the winter.