Forget Red Delicious: Here Are Apples to Use for Everything
Apples may seem rather boring at first glance ( is this the fruit that humanity was banished from paradise from?), But a perfectly crispy, sweet and tart apple fresh from the tree is a wonderful thing, but each variety has its own strengths and benefits.
There are a ton of apples and you shouldn’t be afraid to go out and explore each one. If all you had was Red Delicious (more like “Red Dumbface”, right?), You’re missing out, my friend. Next time you’re in the market, count the apple varieties. If you’re in the grocery store, there will probably be four or five, but at the farmers’ market? You will find dozens of apples, literally dozens . (For example, 10-20.) Traits that make one kind of apple great to eat (delicate, fresh taste and a lot of juice) may make it less than ideal for a pie (aka “mash city”). …
But, as with many culinary questions, sometimes there is more than one “correct” answer, and personal preference may prevail over empirical evidence. (For example, my mom roasts Brussels sprouts to a mushy state. Is this wrong? Yes, it is a crime against Brussels sprouts, but shouting Alton Brown quotes to her will not change her preference.) When lecturing on which apples you “should” eat, bake and drink, I’m going to arm you with the knowledge that will enable you to make better apple choices, because “the more you know” applies even to apples.
So fresh, so fresh: galas, sweet chips and fuji for a snack
Apples are perhaps the lightest snack in the world. They don’t need to be cleaned; just rinse and start chewing. However, not all varieties are suitable for fresh consumption. The ideal apple should combine fresh sweetness and vibrant acidity with crisp, juicy flesh and the distinct “apple” flavor that esters deliver. In fact, the exact opposite of the mealy, monotonous, dull Red Delicious.
According to culinary writer Harold McGee , the best “dessert” or “eatable” apples have a pH of 3.4 and contain about 15% sugar. It’s not the most useful information (unless there is some food lab hidden behind your bookshelf), but it’s interesting. So which ones should you buy to put right in your lovely mouth? According to this adorable homemade website that I’ve been obsessed with for many years, the best fresh apples are Gala, Honeycrisp, Cameo, Pink Ladies, and Fuji. These are the apples you want on the cheese board, my friend. They don’t show much love for Granny Smith (whose pH can be 3.3-3.9 ), but if you are like me and love yourself with a tart apple, you really can’t go wrong with Gran. (Bonus: salt a little. I don’t know why, but my grandmother salt almost all of her fruits, and that will really take them to a delicious place. My grandmother is a genius.)
Get Baked: Golden Delicious for Desserts
When you cook apples, you are looking for two things: something that does not turn into a mushy mass, and something that will retain its flavor. I’m not sure there is one perfect baking apple, but most certified apple experts ™ would agree that Golden Delicious comes close.
In Serious Eats’ very extensive (and delicious) pie research , the great J. Kenji Lopez-Alt found that apples of this variety have a wonderful sweet-tart, buttery taste, but they lack a little texture. branch. However, he gave Golden an 8 out of 10, which is a very respectable rating from someone with such discerning taste and opinions. (Guess what that stupid Red Delicious got? On “1”! Suck it, Red D.)
You might think the solution is as simple as mixing a harder, less flavorful apple, but when it comes to pies, Kenji is the one-apple man, describing two apple pies as “a pie with nice hard apple pieces. interspersed with brown apple gruel. ” Instead, it hardens the Goldens by pre- cooking them to turn the pectin (the fruit “glue” that helps the apple hold its shape) into a more heat-resistant form, preventing liquid from leaking out and turning your pie into a liquid. mess:
What is the easiest way to do this? Pour boiling water over the sliced apples and let them sit for about 10 minutes before drying them, sprinkling them with cinnamon, sugar and cornstarch (to thicken the juice), folding them into a pie shell and baking them.
(You can also strengthen the pectin bonds by adding lemon juice – pectin works better in acidic environments – but you end up with a lemon tart that might suit you.)
There are, of course, other points of view about mixing apples. America’s Test Kitchen is a fan of apple gruel , and their recipe is based on Macintosh textural trends to provide “a pretty, juicy base for tougher grannies.” Don’t know who to trust? Do both and see which one you like best. It should be noted, however, that the ATK recipe was designed to be made with apples, which you can buy at any grocery store at any time of the year, while the Kenji recipe is designed to be prepared during the Golden Delicious season, preferably with the apples of your choice. a few hours before, so maybe put off the ATK pie until the end of the apple season.
Of course, no one says that you can’t experiment with your own apple combinations. Want to know how an apple will last without baking the whole pie? Try them a la McGee (he gives us so much), wrap a few slices in foil and bake for fifteen minutes or in the microwave, wrapped in plastic wrap, until the plastic balls are filled with steam.
Smooth as butter: boil the bryburny (and others)
Apple oil is basically applesauce on steroids. You make the applesauce, but then continue until the sugar is caramelized and everything is nice and easy to spread. Then spread it over bread, top with yogurt, or top with pork chops. You can start with store-bought applesauce, but homemade ones are likely to taste better, especially if you start with the best tasting apples.
Recommendations from which apple butter is best obtained are common throughout. Some advocate using only the softest apples such as Braeburns, McIntosh, Fujis and Courtlands. While it’s true that softer apples will cook faster, the same harder apples that are so good in tarts (like Yellow Delicious) can be apple butter if you cook them long enough (and have faith in yourself). The only apples that are not really recommended are harder varieties like Rome and too mealy Red Delicious. (For incredibly light apple butter that smells divine in your home, use this Crockpot recipe .
Liquid assets: sweet chips, gala teas and cameos for juice and cider.
There are two ways to drink an apple a day. You can juice the bastards and enjoy the resulting liquid in all its fresh, unpasteurized beauty (technically considered “cider” in the US), or ferment them. Guess which one I prefer?
For a simple, healthy juice, I would recommend using the same apples that you enjoy raw. It will be your Gala, Honeycrisp, Cameo and Fuji again, with Honeycrisps that will give you the most bang for your buck, in terms of fluid. There is also no reason why you cannot prepare the mixture here. Want to increase the sweetness without adding anything else? This is the only time I recommend Red Delicious. Need more acid? Grandma covered you. The only apples to avoid when juicing are dried varieties like Rome and Arkansas Black. To juice apples, toss them in a juicer (spirit), steam or simmer using these instructions .
Now that we’ve gotten rid of the boring part, let’s talk about apple booze. There are several ways to do this, and this is a topic you can really dive into, but in the simplest case, you just need to add some yeast to the juice and let the little buggers turn the sugar into alcohol. Since you want the juice to ferment, you need to add some sugar to the yeast. According to Serious Eats , this means half of your juice should come from high sugar, low acid apples (such as Golden Delicious, Johngold, Macoun, Gala, Fuji, Braeburn, and Honeycrisp). Once you have at least 50% sweet juice, you can balance it with tangy apples (like Granny Smith or Rhode Island Greenings, if you find them), just keep them at about a quarter of the juice. Leftover juice can come from sweet apples or semi-sweet foods like McIntosh, Baldwins, Cortlands.
The easiest, laziest, and elegantly vulgar way to achieve this is to use my method of adding a gram of champagne yeast to 64 ounces of juice . (This actually works with any juice that contains at least 20 grams of sugar per serving and does not contain any preservatives.) Simply pour the yeast into a (clean) juice bottle, insert the airlock, and let sit for a couple of minutes. days. In the article above, you will learn how to calculate ABV, but it is actually quite simple. If you want to significantly reduce the chances of bad odor, add the crushed Campden tablet (or part of the tablet, depending on your size) to the juice before adding the yeast. This will kill any wild yeast that might be hovering in there (which could ruin your flavor profile), but it won’t “sterilize” your fresh apple juice.
If you want a better product, HowToMakeHardCider.com is your new best friend. On it, Jessica Shabatura will gently guide you through the entire process, from sterilization to choosing the right yeast, to carbonating and bottling. Her method is a little more complicated than mine (and requires a few more ingredients and materials), but the result is more reliable.
So, how do you like these apples? (Sorry, but I’ve waited over a thousand words to say this.) Whether in pies, fresh or fermented hard cider, apples are a fruit that keeps on producing. I still don’t think they were worth getting kicked out of Eden, but they are definitely not boring … as long as you stay away from that @% $ ing Red Delicious.