Know your apples

Posted on Feb 4th, 2019

by Filip Rukavina

Categories:

Experiments

If you ever wondered which apple variety to choose for your dish, this is the place to be. We put eight common apple varieties (braeburn, cripps pink, fuji, golden delicious, granny smith, idared, jonagold, red delicious) to the test to learn their differences. The tests consisted of eating them raw, sautéed and baked. At the end there are our recommendations for when to use each variety.

Motivation

When you are trying a new recipe with apples and it doesn’t say which variety to use, or you cannot find that one variety in a supermarket or a farmer’s market, it can get quite handy to know your apples. Also, apples are one of the most diverse fruits in the world with more than 7500 varieties! That’s a big number, so we focused only on ones that are easily obtained. Eight of the used varieties are bought in two nearby supermarkets so you shouldn’t have problems with finding the same ones.

Raw test

There is no much to it, slice it and eat it!

Braeburn

Very sweet, but also very tart. Even though the sweetness covers up the acidity, you can feel the acidity by the amount of saliva it draws from you.
It has crisp texture.
The skin is flavourless.

Cripps pink

Also goes by the name Pink Lady ®
Sweet with low tartness
Mild flavor (milder than braeburn)

Fuji

Mild flavor, low sweetness
Floury texture and easy to bite
High water content which can be defined as watery, but also as juicy and refreshing
Chewy skin

Golden delicious

Good balance between sweetness and tartness
Soft and creamy texture

Granny smith

By far the most acidic one, close to citrus acidity
Very hard texture (hard to bite)

Idared

Strong apple flavor
Tart but sweet
Floury and soft texture

Jonagold

High sweetness, low tartness
Easy to bite

Red delicious

It has a sort of fermented flavor and bitter aftertaste
Floury texture
Hard skin

Sauté test

The apples were chopped into small pieces and sautéed for exactly 5 minutes in 2 teaspoons of sunflower oil (something neutral) over medium heat.

Braeburn

Holds shape nicely
It lost some sweetness so tartness came up
Caramelized well which means more flavor

Cripps pink

Holds shape nicely but well cooked
Sweet with some nutty flavor
Not well caramelized – pale appearance

Fuji

Soft and smooth texture
Sweet with a hint of fermented flavor
Seemingly dark but not well caramelized

Golden delicious

Doesn’t hold shape
Very mild flavor, almost flavorless
Texture turned into purée

Granny smith

Still very acidic and without sweetness
Undercooked after 5 minutes
Fiber-like texture

Idared

Doesn’t hold shape but it has nice creamy texture
Tart

Jonagold

Needs a bit more cooking
Sweet with some tartness
Fruity and strong apple flavor

Red delicious

Bit bland with fermented flavor
Very soft texture wise, softer than a ripened banana

Baking test

Apples were peeled and cut into 2-3 cm dice and baked plain for about 40 minutes.

Braeburn

Tart flavor
Creamy texture

Cripps pink

High sweetness which masked the tartness
Hint of honey flavor
Creamy texture

Fuji

Caramelized on the outside
A bit chewy texture

Golden delicious

Caramelized on the outside
Doesn’t hold its shape
Lost its flavor

Granny smith

Tart flavor, but much less than raw or sautéed
Hint of woody/nutty flavor
Lost its shape

Idared

Tart flavor
Watery, juicy
Purée-like texture

Jonagold

Good balance of sweetness and tartness
Tasty apple flavor with hints of honey and nutty flavor (chestnut to be exact)

Red delicious

Fully caramelized, dry
Flavorless; perhaps the baking time was to long for it

Conclusion

Flavors and textures of apples can also vary from different crops, time of harvest, etc. But after running those tests and eating a lot of apples, we would recommend this:

For raw eating and salads: braeburn, cripps pink, golden delicious, jonagold

For cooking: braeburn, cripps pink, idared, jonagold, fuji (for sauces)

For baking: cripps pink, granny smith, jonagold

We find very difficult to categorize red delicious for cooking since its particular flavour and texture, however we believe it’s suitable for cider or compote making.