Apple: An Apple Primer
Apple Storage & Cooking tips:
Store in refrigerator in plastic bag; apples become mealy at room temperature. Now there’s some debate about which apples work well for eating and cooking. Here’s a guide, but use your own judgment.
Eating Apples: Gala, Red Delicious. York, Northern Spy and other cooking apples are firm and tart. All-purpose apple varieties include Braeburn, Fuji and Jonagold.
Baking Apples: Rome Beauty, Granny Smith, Cortland (and
these don’t darken as fast when cut as other apples), Melrose, Golden
Delicious, Idared, Jonagold and Jonathan.
Pie Apples: Newtown Pippin, Gravenstein, Northern Spy,
Stayman’s Winesap, Winesap, Jonathan, Cortland and Iadred.
Sauce Apples: Gravenstein, Cortland, Empire, McIntosh, Greening, Lodi.
Food Chemistry for Apples: When making applesauce, if you add sugar before cooking, the sauce will be chunkier. For a smoother sauce, add after cooking.
Keep Potatoes from sprouting fast! An apple in the potato bin retards sprouting.
An Apple a Day Does Keep the Doctor Away!
• Apples, especially the skin, contain anti-oxidants and soluble fiber
pectin, an anti-cholesterol agent.
• An average size apple provides 10% of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C. The skin, core and interior membranes are stockpiled with phyto-nutrients that are believed to protect the fruit from ultraviolet light, insects, fungi, viruses and bacteria.
• Apples are good for people with diabetes (they help keep blood sugar levels stable and the natural sugars are digested and absorbed slowly – the pectin forms a gel in the digestive tract.
• Apples help reduce the risk of heart disease, and experimental studies show they are very good for smokers.
©2006-2010 Rita Heikenfeld and AboutEating.com
