Apples

Apple season

The British apple season offers home-grown fruit from late summer until the end of winter. Around 2,300 kinds have been bred in Britain, of many different colours, shapes, textures and tastes, and a revival in heritage varieties mean there are more types available in good greengrocers, farmers' markets and farm shops, as well as in some supermarkets.

Every single apple pip can potentially produce a new variety, which is why there are so many kinds. Breeders find trees that produce the qualities they like and then reproduce them by grafting cuttings onto standard rootstock. All Bramley apples, for example, are descended from a tree that is still growing in Southwell, Nottinghamshire.

Apples were originally selected to suit particular local growing conditions, giving a great regional diversity. While much of this diversity has been lost in today’s more standardised systems of retail and agriculture, you can still seek out fruit that is particular to your area.

Eaters and cookers

Victorian horticulturalists fed the British appetite for apple puddings by producing two main types of fruit: eaters (or dessert apples) and cookers.

Eaters are sweeter, with the most interesting having their sugars balanced by an edge of acidity. They hold their shape well in cooking, making them the best choice for a French apple tart, a tart tatin or other continental recipes, which developed in countries without a tradition of culinary apples.

Culinary apples are larger and more acidic. Their sourness mellows on cooking, so you may not need to add as much sugar as you thought to a dish. A cooking apple will become more like an eater in storage because the acids lessen over time. Some apples are termed dual-purpose, and these are best for cooking when young and for eating when older.

Around a quarter of an apple is air (a pear, in contrast, is five per cent air, according to the food scientist Harold McGee) so it cooks easily to a purée, with the acidity of culinary apples helping the flesh to collapse to a soft fluffiness that's perfect for a baked apple or light apple sauce.

Picking and storing

Most commercial fruit is picked under-ripe and put into controlled atmosphere storage (keeping the apples in air that has a high concentration of carbon dioxide), some of it for as long as six months. Some imported apples may have artificial wax on the outside to keep them looking fresh. The very best fruit is tree-ripened and recently picked.

For the ultimate freshness, there are now a number of community, public and commercial orchards where you can pick your own fruit. Gently cup the fruit in your hand and twist slightly. If the stalk comes away easily from the tree, the apple is ready.

To store apples in any quantity, put unblemished fruit in a cool, dark place, making sure the apples do not touch. Check them regularly and immediately throw out any that have rotted. As a rule, the later an apple ripens, the longer it will keep.

Apple varieties

The flavours of traditional apples range greatly, from the freshly fragrant with hints of strawberries to the full-bodied, nutty and spicy types that come later in the season.

Variety is important but much depends on how the fruit is produced. A well-grown Golden Delicious can be a honeyed treat; the majority, however, are neither golden nor delicious.

• Early varieties, such as Discovery, Beauty of Bath and Worcester Pearmain, ripen in late summer and tend to be brightly coloured - sometimes with red blushing into their flesh - sweet, juicy and with a natural waxiness.
• Mid-season fruit, such as Lord Lambourne and Peasgood Nonsuch, are harder-skinned, with firmer fresh and will keep for longer.
• The late-season apples, such as Ashmead's Kernel, Blenheim Orange, Cornish Gillyflower, D'Arcy Spice and Pitmaston Pine Apple, are very rich in flavour, often drier in texture and more likely to be russeted (slightly or entirely rough on the skin).

An apple a day

Apples are full of goodness. High in Vitamin C - some varieties more so than others - and with plenty of fibre, apples are at their very best nutritionally when eaten raw. The inventor of museli, Dr Bircher-Benner, included grated raw apple in the original mix.

The slogan 'an apple a day keeps the doctor away' was coined in the USA at the start of the 20th century as a marketing slogan by growers who were worried about the anti-apple campaigning of the Temperance movement. At that time, much of the crop was made into alcoholic cider, although commercial storage and transport was starting to make fresh fruit more available.

Orchards in decline

Around 60 per cent of Britain's orchards have disappeared since 1950. The apple's astonishing variety has also dwindled as supermarkets and farmers have concentrated on a few types, but the revival of heritage apples is one of the most exciting developments in British food.

Recipes

Savoury apple recipes

• Roast loin of pork with apple sauce by Antony Worrall Thompson
• Pork and apple chops by the Bramley Apple Info Service
• Stuffed pork loin with chorizo, thyme and caramelised apple stuffing by Thomasina Miers
• Braised red cabbage with apples and sherry vinegar by Mike Robinson
• Walnut chicken and Waldorf salad by James Martin
• Pork chops with apple tart topping by Gary Rhodes

Sweet apple recipes

• Chunky apple crumble (video recipe) by Lesley Waters from Get Cooking
• Cox apple tart by Michael Caines
• Baked rice pudding with spiced apple compote by Paul Merrett
• Apple charlotte by Jane Horrocks
• Baked apples with dried cherries, cinnamon and orange zest by Bill Granger
• Apple crumble tart by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
• Apple and rosemary pancake by Alastair Little
• Apple cider cake with mascarpone by Simon Rimmer