Apples: Pick Your Poison
At this time of year, you’re likely to find perhaps a dozen varieties for sale. Which should you pick? What are their best uses?
To help with these questions, food writer Daniel Neman offers this handy guide.
Granny Smith — The tartest of the most commonly available varieties, and also the greenest. It’s great for cooking dishes both sweet and savory, and is excellent in salads.
Gala — Sweet and juicy, the Gala is firm enough to stand up to baking and sautéing, but is also 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 — The name is a bit of marketing genius; it is actually not related to the perennially popular Red Delicious. Sweet and mild, with a trace of vanilla, it has a dense texture that makes it particularly suited to baking and pies.
McIntosh — Juicy, with a sharp, lemony taste and 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 — Currently the “it” apple, as it has been for the past several years. Sweet, with 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. Their texture makes them great for baking and pies, but they are suited for all uses.
Jonathan — Sweet, tangy and spicy, these are good to eat raw but are probably most often used in pies, mixed with a firmer-fleshed apple that doesn’t break down as much as it cooks.
Fuji — Sweet and tart, but mostly sweet, with a touch of spice. Crisp and best eaten raw.
Envy — Very crisp; sweet with an underlying hint of tartness and notes of vanilla. Great for eating out of hand and for cooked desserts, especially with caramel.
Red Delicious — Still the most popular apple in America, though its lead over Gala, Fuji and Honeycrisp is shrinking. Sweet and juicy flesh under a bitter skin, and a flavor that is defiantly unassertive.