At yesterday's Farmer's Market, one of the other farmers, Mile's Farm Produce, brought a wonderful crop of Yellow Transparent apples and their own local peaches. The fruit is smaller this year due to the late spring and the long, painful drought, but it still tastes very, very good and is all the more precious! When I talked to the older folks that came to my stand, they told me that yellow transparent apples make a wonderful applesauce. Of course I had to give it a try.
I wanted to get some history on this pale beauty. According to vintagevirginiaapples.com, "Yellow Transparent originated in Russia or one of the Baltic States and was introduced into Europe in the early 1800s, and into the United States in 1870. The white flesh is crisp and juicy with an acid flavor. Refreshing, well-flavored, soft, pale-cream flesh, whose acidity can make it too sharp for some tastes. It will store for only a few weeks, and ripens in late June and early July over a 3 to 4 week period (here in north-central PA, we're just seeing these apples riping in mid-August!)."
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There's nothing easier to make than a pot of applesauce - peel and core the apples, cut them up, throw them in the pot, heat and mash them. You'll end up with chunky applesauce that tastes 1000% better than anything that comes in a jar.
If you like to flavor your applesauce, or if you like it a bit sweeter, you can add cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, or a little brown sugar. An added bonus to making applesauce is that the cooking apples make your house smell delicious!
What did I think of the yellow transparent applesauce? Let me put down the spoon so I can let you know...
No, seriously, the sauce from yellow transparent apples was not as sweet as I've made from MacIntosh or Yellow Delicious apples, but the fresh apple taste came through beautifully. If you're used to a sweeter sauce then you might want to add a dab of sugar.
"An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away"
Derived from the old English saying . . . "Ate an apfel avore gwain to bed, make the doctor beg his bread," the original author of this most popular apple saying has been lost to history.
I just put up 28 pints of yellow transparent applesauce. I got lazy with the last batch. I just cut them in quarters. Cooked them till soft, and then put them through the food mill when cooled slightly. The peelings and seed spit out the one side and perfect applesauce texture comes out the other! (I used the "pumpkin" screen). I'll never peel again!
ReplyDelete:-) .....and you're right. It tastes 100 % better than anything you could buy.
I don't think I have the pumpkin screen! I have the littlest and I think the medium. I think that'll go on my "gotta get" list!
ReplyDeleteWe have one yellow transparent tree in our orchard. The apples riped a couple of weeks ago and are gone now. I have some of the applesauce in the freezer to enjoy this winter with locally-grown pork!
ReplyDeleteI will be making applesauce in October! I can't wait!
ReplyDeleteThis is an older blog post--i admit it--but id wanted to comment on the yellow transparent. jon cawley here--from port allegany originally, tho now teaching environmental at roanoke college in sw virginia. (apologies if you get two copies of this comment--i did it once, and it disappeared) Anyhow, our area up there seems to have gotten a big influx of transparent apples along about 1870. Officially, the variety type is kinda yellowish, roundy and globular, and came via a sample from Britain. I am suspicious though that some or our mckean and potter transparents are from a different source-- In russia, there is a whole little group of transparent apples--they call them "papirovka" apples--and they have in that group some of the really very white "ghost apples" as well as some fairly elongate "catshead" forms. We seem to have soem of both varieties in the northern tier.... I would be interested in grafting scions of some of the really "white transparent" tree if at all possible. I could reciprocate with some cuttings of my quite elongate one that came from outside eldred. the original tree is now long gone--but i have it growing here in a couple of places. jcawley@roanoke.edu
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ReplyDeleteI apologize Adam. An oversight on my part.
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