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From: gml@ssc-vax.UUCP (Gregory M Lobdell)
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Re: Apples- which kind?
Message-ID: <238@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 13:29:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.238
Posted: Wed Sep 25 13:29:40 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Sep-85 04:13:23 EDT
References: <489@petfe.UUCP>
Organization: Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA
Lines: 41

> IT'S APPLE TIME, BOYS AND GIRLS!!

Hooray!!!  Medical science may have proved that an apple a day may
not keep the doctor away, but it's still my favorite time of the
year.

My family has a small orchard (5 trees) in our back yard.  With a
number of varieties.  I think the best varieties for pies were the
red delicious though I never actually baked them.  What my mother
used most for pies were the windfalls which meant that each pie
would be a mix and she would sweeten each batch to taste.  (Yes,
with sugar, the white stuff.)  Make sure your recipie for apple pie
includes the magic ingredient, cinnamon.  This is what seperates the
good from the mediocre.

My favorite apple product is apple cider.  The clear stuff that you
buy in the supermarket is a fraud.  Real cider is about as clear as
milk and is best made on a cold November day.  We once squeezed 120
gallons in a day.  Hard work but well worth it.  Our apples consisted
of a mix of sweet, soft, natural apples and crisp, tart gravensteins
(gra-ven-steen[s]) (sp?), and both red and golden delicious.  The best
cider made was when we mixed the varieties about evenly.  The best
way to keep fresh squeezed cider is to freeze it, canning is a poor
second.  Yield varied, depending on the water content of the apples
from 10 to 20 pounds of apples to a gallon of cider.

The best eating apple is one that is crisp and slightly tart.  In my
book this is the gravenstein.  It has the taste of a Granny Smith
with the crisp crunch of a good Red or Golden Delicious.  I don't
think that I have ever seen it in stores.  It is green in color with
some red vertical streaks when ripe.  The second best eating apple
is probably the Golden Delicious, when they are crisp.  Though
storage technology has gotten better over the years, some of the
apples that you get in June can be well past their prime.  This time
of the year, the best bet is the Red Delicious, which stores better.
The Macintosh is also a very good apple, available mostly in the
Northeast.  Good and crisp when fresh but my experience is that they
tend to go soft rather quickly.

Well, happy eating,
Gregg Lobdell