The World of Apples

Dessert apples

Apples grown to be eaten raw rather than cooked or pressed for cider. Below are notes on what sets them apart, then the varieties in the atlas that their sources describe as dessert apples.

A dessert apple is one grown to be eaten raw, as distinct from the culinary apples grown for cooking1 and the cider apples grown for pressing2. Most varieties are one or the other, though some serve both ways1.

For E. A. Bunyard, sweetness was the test: sorting the apples in his Handbook of Hardy Fruits (1920), he divided the striped kinds into cookers and a group “nearly all of sufficient sweetness to be classed as dessert”; of the red-and-russet Reinettes, Cox’s Orange Pippin among them, he wrote that “No acid cooking varieties will be found in this group”3.

Dessert apples are not without acid: in juice analysed at the Long Ashton Research Station, near Bristol, between 1905 and 1975, Cox’s Orange Pippin had 0.60% malic acid and Golden Delicious 0.45%, against 0.85% in the cooking apple Bramley’s Seedling4. Andrew Lea puts the sugar in Cox’s juice at about 12%, and in Bramley’s at about 10%5. The same analyses found little tannin in dessert apples, 0.06% to 0.12% in Cox’s Orange Pippin, Golden Delicious and Worcester Pearmain, where a bittersweet cider apple has more than 0.2%4. A 2015 genetic study notes that dessert and cider apples differ in fruit size, regularity of cropping and bitterness, but found little difference between them across the genome as a whole2.

Dessert apples also have their seasons: Robert Hogg’s list of the best dessert apples (1884), set out “in their order of ripening”, runs from Joaneting and Margaret in July to Sturmer Pippin and others in use from February to June6. Some must be eaten soon after picking: the Royal Horticultural Society notes that Discovery, in season in August and September, cannot be stored, while Fiesta keeps until late winter1. Nor is the line with cooking apples fixed, for many culinary apples grow sweeter in store and can be eaten raw from late winter1.

1,217 varieties Filter them with the finder

And 1,068 more in the catalogue, A to Z

Sources

  1. Apples: choosing cultivars, Royal Horticultural Society. Supports: dessert (eating) and culinary (cooking) apples: "The majority of apple cultivars are either dessert or culinary, although some are dual-purpose"; some apples must be eaten within a few weeks of picking; Discovery, season of use August to September, "Cannot be stored"; Fiesta, a dessert apple "to store for late winter"; many culinary apples "become sweeter on storage, lending themselves to dessert use from late winter".
  2. Genomic basis of the differences between cider and dessert apple varieties, Diane Leforestier and others, Evolutionary Applications 8(7): 650–661; PubMed Central, 13 June 2015. Supports: "Sweet dessert apples are used for direct consumption, while bitter cider apples are used to produce cider"; the two types known to differ in fruit size, biennial or annual bearing, and bitterness; the genome-wide genetic differentiation between them low.
  3. A Handbook of Hardy Fruits, vol. I, pp. 11–13: Key to apples described in this work, E. A. Bunyard, John Murray; Internet Archive, 1920. Supports: the key, based "first on the external appearance"; the smooth-skinned striped apples split between the Lane's group, "in most cases" classed as cookers, and the Peasgood group, "nearly all of sufficient sweetness to be classed as dessert"; the Cox's group, the Reinettes, red and russet as in Cox's Orange Pippin: "No acid cooking varieties will be found in this group".
  4. 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, "from 1905 to 1975": malic acid 0.60% in Cox's Orange Pippin, 0.45% in Golden Delicious and 0.85% in Bramley's Seedling (culinary); tannin 0.07% in Cox's Orange Pippin, 0.06% in Golden Delicious and 0.12% in Worcester Pearmain; Barker's classification, in which a bittersweet has more than 0.2% tannin.
  5. The Science of Cidermaking, Part 2: Fruit and Cultivation, Andrew Lea, The Wittenham Hill Cider Portal (cider.org.uk), 1997, updated 2009. Supports: the approximate composition of apple juice: sugar about 12% in Cox and about 10% in Bramley.
  6. The Fruit Manual, fifth edition, pp. 257–258: The best dessert apples, Robert Hogg, Journal of Horticulture Office, London; Internet Archive, 1884. Supports: the list of the best dessert apples "arranged in their order of ripening", from Joaneting and Margaret in July to Lodgemore Nonpareil, Sturmer Pippin and Wanstall, in use from February to June.