The World of Apples

Cooking apples

Apples grown for the kitchen: sharp, and in some cases cooking down to a froth or a purée. Below are notes on the tradition behind them, then the varieties in the atlas that their sources describe as cooking apples.

A cooking, or culinary, apple is one grown to be cooked rather than eaten raw1. Apples grown especially for the kitchen are a British tradition: a 2007 report from the US Department of Agriculture’s office in London called the United Kingdom “the only country that grows apples especially for cooking”, and put Bramley’s Seedling at almost half of UK apple production: 95,000 of the 202,000 tonnes forecast for 20072.

Robert Hogg’s Fruit Manual (1884) gave a list of the best kitchen apples beside its lists of dessert and cider apples3. He counted the English Codlin, once used in “Codlins and cream”, a national dish, among the oldest English apples, and derived its name from coddle, to parboil4. By 1920 E. A. Bunyard could call Bramley’s Seedling “the most popular and profitable of cooking apples”5.

Sharpness, and what happens in the pan

In juice analysed at Long Ashton, near Bristol, Bramley’s Seedling had 0.85% malic acid, against 0.60% in the dessert apple Cox’s Orange Pippin6, and the specification that protects Armagh Bramley apples describes the Bramley as “High in malic acid and low in sugar”, keeping its tangy flavour through cooking7.

Bunyard’s entries say how each variety cooks: Grenadier “Cooks to a froth”, Lord Derby “Cooks a deep golden red”8,9. Bramley’s Seedling is known for collapsing quickly into a purée when heated, unusually among apples10. A 2026 study linked this to the breakdown of pectin, hemicellulose and cellulose in its cell walls, which stayed largely intact in Fuji and Toki, and found that the firmness of the raw fruit did not predict how far it would soften; other apples, such as Calville Blanc d’Hiver, keep their shape when heated10.

Dual-purpose apples

Some varieties serve both ways: Bunyard rated Blenheim Orange “One of the best all round apples grown, cooking excellently, and of fine quality and texture for dessert”11. The Royal Horticultural Society lists it and Charles Ross as dual-purpose, though it warns that they are “seldom excellent for either use”, and notes that many culinary apples grow sweeter in store until they can be eaten raw from late winter1.

424 varieties Filter them with the finder

And 346 more in the catalogue, A to Z

Sources

  1. Apples: choosing cultivars, Royal Horticultural Society. Supports: culinary (cooking) and dessert (eating) apples; Charles Ross and Blenheim Orange listed as dual-purpose cultivars, which "are seldom excellent for either use"; many culinary apples "become sweeter on storage, lending themselves to dessert use from late winter".
  2. United Kingdom, Fresh Deciduous Fruit, Annual 2007 (GAIN report UK7038), Jennifer Wilson, US Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, US Embassy London, 14 December 2007. Supports: "The UK is the only country that grows apples especially for cooking"; "Almost half of UK apple production is dedicated to the culinary variety – Bramley"; the forecast for 2007 (from Eurofel): Bramley 95,000 of 202,000 tonnes of UK apples.
  3. The Fruit Manual, fifth edition, pp. 257–259: The best dessert, kitchen and cider apples, Robert Hogg, Journal of Horticulture Office, London; Internet Archive, 1884. Supports: the list of "The best kitchen apples" (p. 258), between the lists of the best dessert apples (p. 257) and the best cider apples (p. 259).
  4. The Fruit Manual, fifth edition, pp. 72–73: English Codlin, Robert Hogg, Journal of Horticulture Office, London; Internet Archive, 1884. Supports: the English Codlin "A fine old English cooking apple" and "one of our oldest English apples"; "Formerly it was an ingredient in one of the national dishes of English cookery in the form of 'Codlins and cream'"; "The name is derived from coddle, to parboil".
  5. A Handbook of Hardy Fruits, vol. I, pp. 31–32: Bramleys Seedling, E. A. Bunyard, John Murray; Internet Archive, 1920. Supports: Bramley's Seedling "the most popular and profitable of cooking apples".
  6. Cider Apple Compositional Data, Andrew Lea, The Wittenham Hill Cider Portal (cider.org.uk). Supports: composite juice analyses from the Long Ashton Research Station, near Bristol: malic acid 0.85% in Bramley's Seedling (culinary), 0.60% in Cox's Orange Pippin (dessert).
  7. Armagh Bramley Apple: product specification (protected geographical indication), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; GOV.UK. Supports: the Bramley apple "High in malic acid and low in sugar it retains its strong, tangy flavour throughout the cooking process".
  8. A Handbook of Hardy Fruits, vol. I, p. 66: Grenadier, E. A. Bunyard, John Murray; Internet Archive, 1920. Supports: Grenadier, a culinary apple: "Cooks to a froth".
  9. A Handbook of Hardy Fruits, vol. I, p. 82: Lord Derby, E. A. Bunyard, John Murray; Internet Archive, 1920. Supports: Lord Derby, a culinary apple: "Cooks a deep golden red".
  10. Cultivar-Dependent Thermal Flesh Breakdown in Apple Associated with Cell Wall Polysaccharide Modification, with Pronounced Effects in Cooking Apple 'Bramley's Seedling', Mitsuho Nakagomi and others, Foods 15(8): 1375; PubMed Central, 15 April 2026. Supports: Bramley's Seedling "widely recognized for its rapid collapse into a puree-like texture during heating", such softening "uncommon among apple cultivars"; on heating, marked pectin solubilisation and depolymerisation and a loss of hemicellulose and cellulose in Bramley's Seedling, while Fuji and Toki kept their cell-wall structure and tissue integrity; the firmness of the raw fruit "did not predict the extent of softening after heating"; Calville Blanc d'Hiver retains its structural form during heating.
  11. A Handbook of Hardy Fruits, vol. I, p. 29: Blenheim Orange, E. A. Bunyard, John Murray; Internet Archive, 1920. Supports: Blenheim Orange, "Culinary or dessert": "One of the best all round apples grown, cooking excellently, and of fine quality and texture for dessert".