What's Your Favorite Apple"

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

What's your favorite all around apple, and why?

My wife loved red delicious, and golden delicious apples. They were very sweet, and had good texture. Bt over time, they lost some of that great texture and became a little, well, almost mealy, too soft. Then, all kinds of specialty apples began to show up on the shelves. Nany of the apples that I grew up with, like Johnathon, Pippins, and cortlands. I grew up with Cortlands growling in the back yard. Come September, eaten right off of the tree, cold, and crisp, they were amazing.

Now the store shelves are loaded with Fuji, Honeycrisp, and many others. Though they are tasty, what I have found is that most of them have their sweet flavor concentrated in the flesh that contacts the skin, with the deeper flesh more bland.

Of the newer varieties, I like Pink Ladies. They are firm, crisp, with good weight, and just the right balance of tart, and sweet. They are great for eating fresh, and stand up well for cooking. They make a very nice cider, apple sauce, and apple butter. I like to combine them with Jonathans in pies.
Unfortunately, they are a little harder to find on the store shelves than some others.

What's your favorite apple, and why?

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[WhateverYouWant]

HoneyCrisp for me... love the sweetness and the light texture.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Chief, apples are like children - you can't really have a favorite. I probably have fewer dislikes (like that now not-so-delicious Delicious) than I have likes. The one I remember loving the best, though, is a Melrose. It was developed at THE Ohio State University's Wooster ag center after WWII, and it's the official apple of Ohio. Sweet with a little bright bite, it's juicy and oh-so-good. Or at least that's how I remember it. I haven't had any since we moved to MA...

Apples are such a regional thing for many varieties. These days, though, our fruit bin usually has generally available Gala, Braeburn, and (when in season) Honeycrisp. When we lived back home, we would go on Medina county's Fall Foliage Tour each year. Invariably, a few farms were on the route, most offering apples. One year our kids were amazed at the size of the Mutsu apples for sale in Lafayette - they were nearly as big as our daughter's head! Tasty, too. One apple was enough for four of us.

 

[taxlady]

I remember coming across an apple a few years ago, called ambrosia. It was worthy of the name. I haven't seen it recently.

 

[bethzaring]

Chief, apples are like children - you can't really have a favorite. I probably have fewer dislikes (like that now not-so-delicious Delicious) than I have likes. The one I remember loving the best, though, is a Melrose. It was developed at THE Ohio State University's Wooster ag center after WWII, and it's the official apple of Ohio. Sweet with a little bright bite, it's juicy and oh-so-good. Or at least that's how I remember it. I haven't had any since we moved to MA...

I didn't know that. My late FIL worked there from1953 to 1979, researching pasture management before he went into administration.

My favorite apple is Jonathan, for taste, texture, eating fresh and cooking. Second favorite is Golden Delicious.

 

[larry_stewart]

Our favorite is one we pick at a local farm each year right off the trees. They claim them to be golden delicious, but they are more green than yellow. Sweet and tangy taste.

Second to those are Honey Crisp and Macintosh

Jonagold also

 

[pepperhead212]

Whatever's on sale!

Seriously, though, golden delicious was always my favorite, before all the more recent varieties flooded the market, and GD, red delicious, and Granny Smith, and occasionally Macintosh, was all was in the stores around here way back.
Never been a green apple fan, except in cooked dishes.

Honeycrisp and Fuji are two I often buy, and sometimes Gala, all of which have good flavor, and are crisper than GD, which is still an old faithful variety.

 

[caseydog]

HoneyCrisp for me... love the sweetness and the light texture.

Honeycrisp is my favorite, too. I love it to eat fresh, and I have cooked with it.

CD

 

[caseydog]

ChiefIt was developed at THE Ohio State University's Wooster ag center after WWII, and it's the official apple of Ohio. Sweet with a little bright bite, it's juicy and oh-so-good. Or at least that's how I remember it. I haven't had any since we moved to MA...

Probably loved in Ohio, and hated everywhere else.

CD

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Love you too, CD. : mrgreen: I haven't seen them around here. Then again, I've seen apple varieties up here that weren't available in OH.


PS: Go Browns!

 

[caseydog]

Love you too, CD. : mrgreen: I haven't seen them around here. Then again, I've seen apple varieties up here that weren't available in OH.


PS: Go Browns!

I don't think apples grow anywhere in Texas.

CD

(Go Steelers)

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Everyone take a step back, and breath deeply. Stretch a little and calm your spirit, and remember that there is only one sport, only one -hockey. And the Redwings are king of the game. Duck, and run very quickly!

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[blissful]

About 30ish years ago we put in a bunch of fruit trees, only two apples out of 5 are left standing. None of the apples produced much UNTIL this year. Our tree is loaded so we're figuring out how to deal with them. I've been canning applesauce every few days and the main crop is still on the tree.


We haven't identified the apple yet. It's small and medium sized, round with no bumps on the bottom. Color wise-since they may not be completely ripe yet, we can't be sure yet. They are green and then they might get a small area of pink blush on them. The interior is white tinged green (which may be due to not being ripe yet). They are tart more so than sweet. Not mealy very crisp.


When I cook them, they go to apple sauce very quickly. I doubt they would hold their shape in a pie, but we haven't tried anything like that yet. Once they are for sure ripe, I'll take pictures and update the description.


Our guesses are winesap, or shamrock (though I think I would have chosen a familiar name when choosing types of apple trees back then, and shamrock isn't familiar to me).


My favorite apples are green apples, like granny smith.

 

[summer57]

Ambrosia and Salish. Ambrosia is crisp and sweet, but not a bland sweet - it tastes like an apple! Not easy to describe. Also a very good keeper and doesn't brown quickly. It looks a bit like a Delicious but has more speckles



Salish is quite new to the market here in BC. Sweet, tangy, crisp. It's crossed with a Gala and something else.

 

[Bitser]

I grew up with Cortlands growling in the back yard.

Snarling Darlings!

 

[Janet H]

Favorite hand apple is a honeycrisp; for pies golden delicious - hands down.

For sauces a mix if possible that includes some McIntosh

 

[karadekoolaid]

Coxes Orange Pippins. Alas, I haven´t seen them in years, and then only in the South of England. Their downfall was that they tend to be smallish and a bit irregular in size, so compared to the bland French Golden Delicious, which are always big, supermarkets prefer the latter.
If I´m cooking, I prefer Granny Smiths for their sharpness. I find "red" apples bland and spongy in texture.

 

[luvbing]

grew up loving gala, mostly because that's what my mom purchased. got really into fuji for a while but these days my eyes are set on the honeycrisp apples. they are such big bodied apples i love sharing them with someone and i enjoy them best sliced extremely thin and in a bowl of almond or oat milk with a sprinkle of cinnamon. delish little guilt free treat for when i feel like preparing a snack but not cooking a whole dish

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

And for a snack, I love freeze-dried apple slices. Not sure what kind of apples are used, but they are delicious

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North.

 

[larry_stewart]

Just went apple picking for the first time this season. The usual yellow apples we pick still needs a few more weeks, but the honeycrisp were ready, so we got a dozen of them.

Will go back in a few weeks to load up on the yellow apples, which make great cider ( an annual tradition of ours).