Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site ssc-vax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!gml 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 Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com