Drying apples

Fruit in the Kitchen
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Not much on what type of apples are best for drying out there. I would assume there are certain types that are better for drying than others. Any one have any input?

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Cummin’s said Westfield seek no further is a good drying apple, I love some dried apple slices so I bought one.

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I had read that ‘Enterprise’ is an excellent apple for fresh eating, cooking and drying. I finally bought a dehydrator and will try drying them this Oct. I’ll let you know how they taste.

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There are many lists of apples better for drying. One nice thing about Tom Burfords new apple book is it has a good list in it.

I grepped (you know what I mean if you are a geek) my apple descriptions and got the following drying apples to come out. All of these had drying mentioned in a description someone wrote.

Akane
American Golden Russet
Baldwin
Ben Davis
Black Gilliflower
Benham
Buff
Cannon Pearmain
Cathead
Criterion
Fallawater
Gold Rush
Golden Russet
Hightop Sweet
Horse
Lacy
Maiden’s Blush
Norfolk Beefing
Polly Eades
Reasor Green
Red Free
Rome Beauty
Roxbury Russet
Rusty Coat
Sheepnose
Spiddle Hill Striped
Summer Queen
Summer Rambo
Tarbutton
Westfield Seek-No-Further
Wolf River

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As I understand it, Gravenstein was heavily used this way in the past.

Edit: By happenstance, I was looking at Andy Mariani’s “Blue Book” today and it lists King of Tompkins County and Rhode Island Greening as good for drying.

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I know this is an old thread but I ran across it when wondering what varieties others have found particularly good for drying in their own experience (knowing that whatever apple you have is probably “best” if that’s all you have). My favorite is Dudley. It is a tart-sweet-juicy apple, large so more apple (important when peeling/coring by hand) per piece. Though recently I started using a hand cranked apple-peeler tool which won’t work with very large apples, so I stopped thinning my Dudleys so much so I don’t get so many overly large ones. I use the dried apples for sauce. Since I also make smooth “food mill” (Victorio strainer) sauce mixing the two gives some texture to the canned sauce which we like. Dried Dudleys reconstituted seems to have more flavor than fresh sauce (which I do a lot of, too, as well as cider). Plus drying is much more pleasant than canning in late summer which is when Dudley’s ripen here (they don’t store long). Sue

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My dehydrator is running right now as a matter of fact. I have Evercrisp in it now. Can’t help you on older varieties but Suncrisp, Ruby Rush and Sweetango are all tasty for me as I just eat them as dried with the peel on. I also like Staymans but they need lemon juice so they won’t darken.

I also did a few Goldrush but they were too tart at this point. Will try them again in a month or so.

Ask me again in 3 to 4 years as I set out a bunch of heirlooms this fall and more coming in the spring.

I’m also simmering a pot of applesauce. Plus a pot of collards with ham. The collards are for me as my wife doesn’t like them.

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I give you a like for the collards and ham. My wife made a big pot of collards with ham hocks for Thanksgiving.

I’m not a fan of dried apples, the texture is like closed cell foam, like eating a gasket. Also not a fan of dried jujube for similar reason. Dried pears are the way to go :slight_smile:

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