Wikipedia says so, but I have not tried making butter out of them. I remember I picked one up at a market simply because it was the biggest apple I had ever seen; it weighed 20 something ounces. I ate half and baked the other half. Sadly, I peeled the other half so I can speak on how the skin cooks, but it did hold a good half shape and developed a better flavor.
Cooked apples are under-rated, some basically become caramel custard and you don’t really need to worry if they have gone mealy. I really love rome apples, which have skins that more or less melt with cooking, and winesaps for baked apples. I eat them plain or dusted with ginger, cinnamon and fresh grated nutmeg. Great hot or cold, with or without some whipped cream.
Cooking apples to me means the top pie crust doesn’t sink into mush. A good cooking apple should hold its shape fairly well and not become mush, after being cooked. But thats my definition…
Yeah, most good baking apples are also good for " baked apples" which is just an apple cut in half and baked. Some people core them and wrap pastry dough around them before filling them with butter and brown sugar.
I stick a halved mealy apple into the microwave and get an incredible tasting dessert that won’t give me diabetes.
I’ve had several Enterprises that have always fruited in NE Kansas, and never had any sign of Cedar Apple Rust or fireblight. They always make really lovely shaped trees. My Liberty has likewise always done well, but I’ve never been excited about the fruit. All the Arkansas Blacks in my neighborhood do GREAT–no one sprays and they all make beautiful apples that keep most of the winter. So far Roxbury Russet is looking good (ie, no signs of any disease), but they’re still young and haven’t made fruit yet.
My Golden Russets are way more susceptible to Cedar Apple Rust than my other disease resistant varieties, as is Hudson’s Golden Gem, which is also supposed to be resistant.
Yeah, I don’t have much if any rust on mine, and I have loads of cedars as well of lots of rust elsewhere. I agree it’s a nice tree.
FWIW, Liberty seems much better to me if we don’t pick it too soon. Here, it looks ripe in early October but it’s still very tart and not so sweet. Two weeks later it is much better. But there’s not a lot of nuance – it’s sweet and tart, period. I’m growing it. mainly as a base for cider.
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I got my Liberty for its disease resistance. But I was hoping for more flavor. The Ashmead’s Kernal has TONS of flavor, but I’ve never gotten much fruit off of it, and I’m not sure why. I’ve made cider with the Liberty, Enterprise, and Freedom apples, but they were all probably picked too soon.
The first year I made cider, I bought juice from a local farm. The juice was 100% Liberty. The grower admitted that it was picked early (early Oct, as I recall) but it still made a good sweet cider – enough sugar to balance the tartness. But when I fermented away the sugar, there was nothing left but acid.
I’m still really a novice cider-maker, so take any advice with a grain of salt. I’d definitely pick Liberty later. And I’d use no more than 50% Liberty, blending it with something tastier and tannic.
Do you do a starch test with iodine? It’s pretty easy and it’ll tell you definitively if the starch had turned to sugar.
Naw, never done a starch test. I’m a novice cider-maker too–that first year, we pressed 32 gallons of sweet cider, which tasted GREAT, but it was fermented at too high of a temperature, especially for the yeast I used (I couldn’t find anyplace cooler than the 85F in our basement), and the hard cider was terrible–it improved somewhat over about 6 months and then declined again. The second time was much better, but without good cider apples, it’s never going to be very exciting. I have high hopes for what we have planted in the orchard now, but we’re still several years away from any kind of production, and being CAR resistant is absolutely essential given what’s growing in the area.
I’m only slightly ahead of you. FWIW, I started making mead as a way to develop skill in fermentation. But the mead turned out excellent, so now I make 15-20 gallons a year. You do need to get the yeast / temperature right or else the yeast get stressed and the product smells and tastes of sulphur compounds.
I have a ton of CAR here. I’ve planted a lot of varieties, so LMK if you want an indication as to what seems to work and what doesn’t.
Rhode Island is pretty different from Kansas, but I would definitely be interested in what has worked for you.
We too have a whole ton of Eastern Red Cedars, and our apples that are all supposed to be resistant to CAR, and so far, with our young orchard (mostly planted in 2020 and 2021), almost all of them seem almost completely untouched by it. This is what we have:
Arkansas Black (the one that does best with all of our neighbors),
Ashmead’s Kernal (my favorite in terms of flavor),
Baldwin (beautiful tree, expect fruit next year)
Black Limbertwig (so puny I don’t think it will ever grow enough to fruit),
Bramley’s Seedling (puny)
Clark’s Crab (good growth)
Dabinette (also super-slow),
Dolgo Crab (great growth)
Enterprise (beautiful trees, super-productive in town),
Everest Crab (beautiful flowers)
Francesca’s Seedling (good growth)
Franklin (expect fruit next year),
Freedom (had been been biennial-bearing in town, not yet fruiting at farm)
Golden Russet (some susceptibility to CAR)
Harrison (slow)
Hudson’s Golden Gem (some susceptibility to CAR)
Aldo Leopold (great growth, seems immune to CAR, not yet fruited)
Liberty (already discussed at length above)
Roxbury Russet (good growth, in-town tree did really well)
Winesap (puny)
Yates (puny)
And LOL on the mead! I started making country wines for exactly the same reason, and they too have been excellent. They’ve all been from our own (or neighbor’s) fruit. The best have been cherry, strawberry, elderberry, persimmon, and pear with a touch of clove. I have carboys of aronia, sandhill plum, and elderberry again from last year waiting to be bottled.
how does your Pristine do with fireblight, and do you spray? I love this apple, grew it for a couple of years before moving and I never sprayed. However, I’v heard reports from many that it gets FB annually I just never had it long enough to see for myself.
I spray them some but I am pretty low spray. I have never seen fire blight on my Pristine apples. I don’t see much fire blight period here though. Had a little show up in some older pears last summer for the first time in years but none this year.
To my palate, newer varieties are better, besides Goldrush, which is a magnet for cedar apple rust and, of course, harmless ugly fly speck and sooty blotch. I have especially liked the Crimson series including Crimson Gold, which is more red than gold.
I don’t need no stinkin summer apples! Newer varieties and Goldrush will keep in the fridge all winter when apples rule.
Incidentally, the variety sold by Adams County Nursery as an early Goldrush is a sport of the variety, not something deemed similar like Crunch-a-Bunch. CB takes a long time to fruit but the Adams’ version is precocious like the tree it sported from. I still haven’t tasted its fruit but should get a chance this season. CB has taken 5 years to finally show a few fruit (on M7!)
Newer varieties and Goldrush will keep in the fridge all winter when apples rule.