Original Air-Blue Gown

December 30, 2008 6:45 PM

Applesauce filter: Why do apples, plums and pears turn to pulp when you boil them?
posted by puckish to Food & Drink (6 answers total)

The heat breaks the cell walls in the fruit's tissue, detaching morsel from morsel. Most organic materials turn to pulp when you boil them enough,
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 7:07 PM on December 30, 2008

Actually, if you wait long enough you don't even have to boil them.
posted by longsleeves at 7:09 PM on December 30, 2008

My guess is that cooking them dissolves the pectin and other structural carbohydrates that make them crispy when raw.
posted by abirae at 7:25 PM on December 30, 2008

They're mostly water and very little starch. The cells break down.
posted by iamkimiam at 9:56 PM on December 30, 2008

To reinforce Ambrosia Voyeur's point, potatoes, sweet potatoes (not closely related), various berries, and asparagus have all been reduced by boiling to mush in my cookpots in the past, usually as a prepatory step for pureeing.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:51 PM on December 30, 2008

They have high water content and relatively little fiber. Once you break down the cell walls, there's not much left to hold them together.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 11:54 PM on December 30, 2008