Different fruits naturally have different amounts of hardness to them, and because of this it can be difficult to determine when a fruit has reached it’s optimal stage of ripeness. For example, many types of apples are supposed to be very crunchy, but others are supposed to be softer.
But what about pears? Are pears supposed to be soft?
Yes, a ripe pear should be somewhat soft. Some people are surprised to learn this because the pears that they buy from the store are rather hard. This is because pears are picked before they are fully ripened and shipped when they are hard so that they will be less likely to bruise during the shipping process.