Malus Aforethought

[steepholm]

My apple-buying habits have changed over the years. Back in the day, I remember feeling that Golden Delicious apples were the bee's knees, but now I'd only eat one of the pallid pap globes if desperate. What changed - my taste, or the strain? Reliability is another factor. At its best, nothing beats a Cox's Orange Pippin - which is also the most beautiful of apples, appearing to have rolled out of a Chardin - but it often isn't at its best, and when it falls short it can be a very ordinary fruit indeed. Pink Lady and Granny Smith are similarly variable, both suffering a tendency to waxiness that can lead to heartbreaking disappointment, especially in the case of the pricey Pink Lady. In recent years, I've found Jazz offers the best overall combination of taste, texture and reliability, but it's usually quite expensive. Braeburn too is reliable, if not quite as tasty. Royal Gala is better than Golden Delicious, but still disappointingly bland. And then there's Russet, which offers the apple equivalent of Rupert Brooke's "rough male kiss of blankets" - a lovely apple, but not for every day.

What are your dessert apple choices? How do you rate the ones I've mentioned, and which others would you recommend?



[Poll #1901037]

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

I remember as a child, the first time I ever ate a Granny Smith. I was at a friends house. My mother only ever bought Macentosh. Those are like bags of mush. Horrid.

I find that there are few kinds of apples available. I like Braeburn, Gala, Granny Smith. Probably in that order. I cook with apples too, so I like one that holds up.

I wish there were more varieties available.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Macentosh is new to me - but it sounds like I've not missed much.

Cooking apples are a whole other ball game. We had a couple of Bramley trees when I was a child, and I grew up on pies, crumbles and charlottes made from them, so I think I have a natural Bramley bias.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I thought I remembered McIntosh apples being good when I was in New England, but maybe what I remember is people telling me how they used to be good but now you should get some other kind, Northern Spy or something. You are fortunate if you have never met a Red Delicious. My mother bought them for a centerpiece now and again because they looked pretty, but otherwise they were no good at all. I just checked the refrigerator and we currently have Fuji apples on hand. They're getting past their best at this time of year, but they're basically quite a good variety.

I did a semester abroad in Oxford when I was in college, and while I was there lived mainly on oatmeal and stewed Bramley apples.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Northern Spy? I like the sound of them!

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

They're quintessentially New England apples, thin-skinned, bullet-hard, and tart.

But here under the apple tree
I loved and watched and pruned
With gnarled hands
In the long, long years;
Here under the roots of this northern-spy
To move in the chemic change and circle of life,
Into the soil and into the flesh of the tree,
And into the living epitaphs
Of redder apples!

--Edgar Lee Masters

Nine

[diceytillerman.livejournal.com]

In my experience, Macintosh are fabulous and not mealy at all. But maybe you need to be near where they grow?

[gillpolack.livejournal.com]

I do think there are variants within the variants, for Macintoshs were good when I was a kid and are unavailable outside specialist farms now, and Red Delicious were what they were called when I was a kid and I avoid them like the plague now.

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Macintosh were really good, and not at all mealy, when I was a child. And Red Delicious were also very crisp. They had certainly turned to garbage by the time I was in grad school, in the eighties.