Daniel NemanSt. Louis Post-Dispatch| The Columbus Dispatch
Now is the time when apples—America’s second most popular fruit (after bananas) — are at their freshest and best.
The apples you buy next spring and summer will have been picked now, or maybe in the next couple of months, and kept refrigerated until they are sold. And although apples stay fresh and good for a long time, there is no comparison between an apple you buy next June and one you buy now.
More than 7,000 varieties of apples grow around the world, including 2,500 in the United States. Of those, about 100 are grown commercially and find their way to your store.
Knowing which of the many varieties to use makes apple-based recipes turn out even better.
I experimented with three apple dishes — pork chops with apple, apple fritters andapple custard pie — until I found the tastiest matches.
A handy guide to the varieties:
• Granny Smith: The tartest of the most commonly available varieties — and also the greenest —the Granny Smith is great for cooking in sweet and savory dishes, and it is excellent in salads.
• Gala: Sweet and juicy, the Gala is firm enough to stand up to baking and sauteing, but it also is great eaten raw.
• Pink Lady: Crisp and juicy, with a creamy, custard flavor, Pink Lady is actually a brand name. Apple aficionados call it by its real name, Cripps Pink. Good for cooking and great for eating raw.
• Golden Delicious: Sweet and mild, with a trace of vanilla, this fruit has a dense texture that makes it particularly suited to baking and pies.
• McIntosh: Juicy, with a sharp, lemony taste, this apple has a tender flesh some might consider almost mushy. If you don’t mind the texture, eat it raw. Otherwise, use it for applesauce or apple pie.
• Honeycrisp: The “it” apple for the past several years, this one tastes sweet and has a nice, crunchy bite. It’s best eaten fresh, especially in a salad.
• Braeburn: Juicy, crisp and sweet, with a rich but mild flavor of spice, the Braeburn has a texture great for baking and pies, but it is well-suited for all uses.
• Jonathan: Sweet, tangy and spicy, it is good to eat raw but is probably most often used in pies, mixed with a firmer-fleshed apple that doesn’t break down as much as it cooks.
• Fuji: Mostly sweet, with some tartnessand a touch of spice, the Fuji tastes crisp and is best eaten raw.
• Envy: Very crisp and sweet with an underlying hint of tartness and notes of vanilla, this variety is great for eating raw and for cooked desserts, especially with caramel.
• Red Delicious: This still is the most popular apple in America, though its lead over Gala, Fuji and Honeycrisp is shrinking. Sweet and juicy flesh under a bitter skin, the Red Delicious has a flavor that is defiantly unassertive.
