Primer | Know Your Apples

Whether browsing at a market or selecting from an orchard, apple ID is essential. Here’s our field (well, orchard) guide to the best of the crop

George Cave
What George lacks in aroma he makes up for in intensity: a crisp, sharp bite gives way to a gently sweet mouthful, not overly juicy.

Grenadier
The gnarled, knobbled skin may give this cooking apple a battle-weary appearance, but beneath the rugged armour there’s a yielding, creamy flesh, ideal for sauces and chutneys.

D’arcy Spice
The ultimate coleslaw/cheeseboard apple offers firm, crisp flesh gently infused with subtle, sophisticated undertones of star anise, clove and white pepper.

Howgate Wonder
Sweet, firm and only mildly acidic, this waxy-fleshed, blushing beauty keeps well, cooks well and makes a proper pie.

James Grieve
Take a bite of this crisp, juicy beauty fresh off the tree in late July and the acidic overtones may induce a wince. Allow James to mellow until at least September, however, and he offers an altogether softer, creamier mouthful.

Chelmsford Wonder
Softish flesh reminiscent of macadamia nuts yields distinctly Chardonnay-esque flavours, sophisticated only gently acidic.

Lane’s Prince Albert
A winter-season treat, offering substantial character that brings real personality to a crumble and delivers complexity to chutney.

Margil
Widely acclaimed by apple connoisseurs for its firm, crisp bite and highly aromatic, candyfloss overtones – to cook with the Margil would be a crime.

Pam’s Delight
This red-tinged beauty is a lunchbox classic, juicy enough to quench thirst and sweet enough to curb sugar cravings.

Beauty of Bath
Blink as this one falls from the tree and you’ll miss the best bite of this soft, sensual beauty featuring pink-tinged, creamy flesh with an almost strawberry flavour.

Peasgood’s Nonsuch
This big, sturdy stalwart delivers a densely characterful flavour-punch, good teamed with cheddar cheese or cooked in a pie.

Apple Day is celebrated on 21st October but there are apple-related events all over the country this weekend. The primer above is taken from our feature, The Apples of Our Eye in our October issue, which is on sale now. It was originally published in the first ever issue of The Simple Things and we’ve reprinted it to make our 10th birthday! Because simple things like apple picking never cease to be good fun!

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Etymology | Scrumping

Good words and what they mean. This month: the etymology (or ate-‘em-ology) of scrumping

It’s apple harvest time. But if you have a tree, make sure you get there before the scrumpers do. The practice of ‘scrumping’ for apples is as old as apple trees themselves but interestingly the term ‘scrumping’ doesn’t appear until 1886. 

Etymologists aren’t sure of its history but it’s thought to come either from a dialectical term meaning ‘something shrivelled or withered’ (which probably comes from the Middle Dutch, schrimpen) or from the adjective ‘scrimp’ which meant thrifty, and later morphed into the verb ‘to scrimp and save’ that we use today. 

Both theories are supported by the earliest meaning of ‘scrumping’ which referred not to actual stealing but simply to taking either windfalls or the smallest apples which were left on the trees after the apple harvest was over. So they’d be the slightly shrivelled apples no one wanted, and you’d save yourself money by taking them. 

Scrumping is, strictly speaking, illegal and one of those things that is charming and scampish when you are eight years old but tends to be frowned upon once you hit 28 years old. So if you’re going to do it, either take a child with you as cover, or do it on common land and call it ‘foraging’ instead. 

Oh, and one last word of caution: if you’re outside the UK, scrumping has a very different and slightly lewder meaning, so proceed with caution. Ask someone to scrumping with you and you might get invited in for more than apple crumble. 

Core values: Apple recipes for your illegal wares

If you’ve been scrumping (or just been to the farm shop) here are a few apple recipes from our blog that will soon see off a glut. 

Bircher Muesli with Cinnamon and Grated Apple

Barbecue Baked Apples

French Apple Tart

Crab Apple and Fennel Seed Leather

Apple Doughnuts

Crab Apple Whisky

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Clever tips for tricky apples

How not to be beaten by bobbing or tricked by a toffee apple this season

We love an apple, but they’ve been causing trouble for millennia, what with tempting innocent folk going about their business in the garden of Eden, causing discord among Greek Gods and all sorts of trouble in Norse legend, too. 

And even today, if you’ve ever tried bobbing for apples or munching on a toffee apple at this time of year you’ll know they can be tricky customers. Here’s The Simple Things’ guide to getting one over on apples this autumn.

How to eat a toffee apple

Here’s how to avoid a very sticky face, sugar in one’s hair and the risk of dropping your toffee apple on the floor and it rolling into the bonfire…. 

Etiquette dictates that one should cut a toffee apple into slices and, indeed, this is the way to eat one if you wish to eliminate all the above risks. Take a sharp knife and a plate and simply slice the apple and remove the core as you would any ordinary (non-toffeed) apple and eat it in bite-sized slices.

The Simple Things method: Open your mouth as wide as possible and take a huge bite at the first pass, showering yourself with shards of sugar, getting sticky bits in your hair and dicing with a trip to the dentist. Because where is the fun, and what on earth is the point otherwise, we ask you.

How to succeed at apple bobbing

Any activity that involves getting wet, probably outside, at the end of October should be undertaken in a wetsuit really. But assuming you’re going to wing it in civvies (or a Halloween costume) here’s how the pros think you should proceed.

Don’t just randomly grab at apples with your mouth. You’ll get very wet. You need to think strategically here and go for one of two methods. Either look for an apple floating right way up with a prominent stalk and try to catch the stalk between your teeth (don’t bother with this method if you have a significant overbite), or pick an apple you’re going for and push it up against the side of the bowl using the bowl as leverage in order to sink your teeth into the apple.

The Simple Things method: Come dressed as a witch in a black bin liner, so the top half of your body is essentially waterproof. Don a swimming cap and nose clip. Take a deep breath and plunge your head into the water, using the bottom of the bowl to push against to get your teeth into the apple. Remove swimming cap and witch bin liner and emerge victorious. 

If you’re making your own toffee apples for Halloween (or just because) you might like to try the recipe for the toffee apples on twigs (above) from Apple by James Rich (Hardie Grant). You can find the recipe on p71 of our October Create issue or buy it in the link below.

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Recipe: Crab apple & fennel seed leather

Nature’s bounty is all around us; in the woods, fields, moors and sea. Gill Miller serves up some culinary inspiration to help enjoy the best of it

Recipe: Crab apple & fennel seed leather

This is preserving at its simplest. You dry the fruit purée until there is no moisture left, intensifying every single element of flavour. With the bite of sweet fennel seeds, the resulting crab-apple leather is insanely good.

Makes 2 sheets
1kg crab apples, stalks removed and roughly chopped
2 tbsp runny honey
2 tsp fennel seeds

1 Cook the crab apples with a splash of water in a large, heavy-based pan set over a gentle heat. Stirring regularly, cook for 45–60 minutes until the crab apples are very soft and broken down (if the fruit isn’t really pulpy, continue to cook until it is). Add more water if at any point the pan looks dry.
2 Remove from the heat and push the pulp through a mouli with a fine gauge into a clean bowl. (If you don’t have a mouli, you can rub the mixture through a sieve.) Add the honey, then the fennel seeds and stir well to combine. Taste for sweetness, adding more honey if you need to.
3 Heat the oven to low – around 60C/ Fan 40C/140F is good. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment. Divide the mixture equally between the two baking sheets, smoothing it out as evenly and as thinly as you can.
4 Place the baking sheets in the oven for 12–14 hours until the thin layers of pulp are completely dry, even at the centre. Remove from the oven and allow the trays to cool.
5 Lay out two clean pieces of baking parchment, each slightly longer and wider than the pieces of leather. Peel each leather off the baking sheet and lay it onto a prepared piece of clean parchment. Take one end of the first piece of clean parchment and roll it up with the leather inside. Repeat for the other piece of parchment and leather. The leather will keep in an airtight container for 4–5 months.

Turn to page 38 of November’s The Simple Things for more recipes from the land by Gill Miller, including Barley, squash and mushrooms with herb and crème fraîche dressing, Malted wheat loaf, Rabbit with pappardelle, Salted pollock with potatoes, cream and marjoram, and Cobnut, prune & chocolate tart.

Gill Meller is head chef at River Cottage and a food writer, and teaches at the cookery school. He lives in Dorset with his family. This recipe is taken from Gill’s first book, Gather (Quadrille), which is out now.
 

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Recipe: Apple 'doughnuts'

OK, so these aren’t real doughnuts, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how delicious (and addictive) they are, despite being far healthier than their sugary namesakes. Kids will love making and eating them – so why not turn it into a game and see who can be the most creative? Great for using up your apple harvest, the doughnuts make a fun breakfast or healthy snack at any time of day. 

MAKES 12

300g full-fat cream cheese
100g peanut, almond or cashew nut butter
2 tbsp fruit purée or coulis
1 tsp maple syrup or honey
2 large apples, either red or green or 1 of each
3 tbsp chocolate spread or toffee sauce (optional)
75g mixture of your chosen toppings (see below)

TOPPINGS:

dried fruit, eg golden raisins, cranberries, dried apricots or goji berries
nuts, eg hazelnuts, pecans, almonds or pistachios
seeds, eg pumpkin, sunflower,
toasted sesame or linseeds roasted nut and seed mix toasted coconut flakes
bee pollen
edible flowers

ESSENTIAL KIT:

apple corer

1 Line a tray with non-stick baking paper and set aside.
2 Divide the cream cheese between two small bowls. Mix the nut butter into one and the fruit purée or coulis into the other. Stir 1⁄2 tsp of syrup or honey into each bowl. Cover and set aside. Can be made a day in advance.
3 Use the apple corer to remove the cores. Cut each apple into six even-sized slices (including the ends) and lay them flat on the prepared tray, ends cut side up.
4 Spread the nutty cream cheese over six slices and the fruity one over the other six, leaving the hole clear. Use your toppings to decorate the apple doughnuts as you like. You can also chop your toppings into smaller pieces if you prefer. Either arrange them on top of the apple slices or press the creamy side down onto the toppings to stick.
5 As a further flourish, drizzle chocolate spread or toffee sauce over the apple doughnuts, if you like. To loosen the sauce for drizzling, spoon it into a small bowl and sit the bowl in another bowl of just-boiled water. Give it a good stir once it starts to melt.

These can be made up to a day ahead and kept covered in the fridge. Serve on a tiered stand or layered between small squares of baking paper in a nice box.

For a twist...

• Use chocolate spread instead of nut butter, or jam instead of fruit purée.
• Decorate the tops with cake sprinkles for a treat.

Recipe from The No-Cook Cookbook by Sharon Hearne-Smith (Quercus) 

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