What are the best apples to cook with?
Rachel, Kent
There are more than 2,500 varieties of apples grown in the UK, not that you’d know it from the handful available in supermarkets. For this reason, Jane Scotter of biodynamic farm Fern Verrow in Herefordshire says it’s “more about where you buy your apples from”. Going to a farmer’s market, she explains, “where they know the attributes of each apple, is the best way to find out more”.
Of course, that isn’t viable for everyone, so let’s get some pointers from Julius Roberts, author of The Farm Table: “We all know there are cookers and eaters, but while you have to cook the former, because they are so sharp, you can still cook with eating apples.” Resist the urge to get “too bogged down” with varieties, though: “You want to get more into the texture and flavours instead.” This will come through experimentation, so Roberts advises grabbing a selection and “just playing around”.
That said, there is one apple you can rely on for eating and cooking, says Scotter: step forward the russet. “It has such good flavour and consistency, and won’t fall apart if you’re making tarte tatin,” she says, because it often comes down to structural integrity. “If you use a cooking apple in gravy, it will completely dissolve and thicken the mix, but you don’t want your apple pie to be like baby food.” Russets will work in salads, too, though you could also deploy a Blenheim Orange, so long as it’s picked from mid-October onwards, says David Josephs of Panzer’s in north London. “The sugar levels will have increased by then, plus there’s the additional benefit that, when cut, the flesh doesn’t go brown quickly.”
When heat is involved, however, there is nothing quite like a bramley, says Scotter. “It is the cooking apple, with amazing flavour, which you sweeten to taste, and a texture that can go quite snowy,” she says. The other reason bramleys “reign supreme”, Josephs adds, is that they’re so reliable, maintaining “high acidity levels all year round”. Reverend Wilks is another “beautiful cooking apple with superb tartness,” Scotter adds, although her favourite to cook whole is the Pitmaston Pineapple, a “fairytale-shaped apple with broad shoulders and a nice little waist”. Skye Gyngell, at her restaurant Spring (which Scotter supplies), bakes these little beauties “like toffee apples” and serves with ice-cream.
Sometimes, though, two apples are better than one, and Roberts’ turnovers are a good example of this. “You want the texture to hold, but you also want it to have that nice mushiness,” he says, and Roberts achieves that sweet spot through a combo of cookers and eaters. “Once I’ve cooked my bramley apples down, I’ll fold through cut-up eating apples, so you get bits of apple in a lovely, appley sauce.” Crumbles could be a mix of bramleys and coxes, but this tactic also applies to savoury scenarios. “I love apples with meat,” Roberts says, in particular, pork belly, which he roasts on top of the fruit, alongside onions, garlic, thyme and white wine. “I always use bramleys for sharp body and some sweet ones, which almost melt and absorb all of those fatty pork juices to make an incredible, readymade apple sauce.” Now that’s something to take a bite out of.
• Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com
