# I pit APPLES! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 8, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854 "2013-05-08T23:47:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/21 "2013-05-09T01:57:24Z")
But if we didn’t have apples, we’d have no sin. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/22 "2013-05-09T02:02:59Z")
Hell, I am making apple pie this upcoming weekend. I eat apples year round. Okay, I am done with my praising of apples. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/23 "2013-05-09T02:04:06Z")
Apples are one of the few fruits I really like, so I try to eat as many as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Furious\_Marmot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dfb087/32.png) [@Furious\_Marmot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furious_Marmot)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/24 "2013-05-09T02:16:48Z")
> [@Shooby](#): > > … > Sure, you can go on about different varieties. I know all about the stupid Fijis, McIntoshes, Granny Smiths, Galas, and Golden Delicious - awesome names, but just a massive cover-up to hide the slight variations on _bland_. > … Those are all middle of the road, kind of blah apples, so what do you expect? Honeycrisp excepted. Those can be good. The fault lies not in our apples, but in ourselves. And by ourselves I mean you, or more specifically, your grocery store. When it’s apple season again, go somewhere with a better selection. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/25 "2013-05-09T02:21:30Z")
Pinata apples, bisnitches. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/26 "2013-05-09T02:27:26Z")
Haven’t apples been bred to basically be sugar delivery vehicles? My understanding is that taste has been selected against in favor of cloying sweetness. Anyway, I eat them fairly often, but I’m not really sure why. I support this pitting. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/27 "2013-05-09T02:31:12Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > Haven’t apples been bred to basically be sugar delivery vehicles? My understanding is that taste has been selected against in favor of cloying sweetness. Not if you get them organic and non-GMO from Whole Foods. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/28 "2013-05-09T02:35:28Z")
You don’t pit apples you core them. You pit stone fruits like cherries and plums. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/29 "2013-05-09T02:50:21Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > It was also apparently once a lot tastier when the first mutant was discovered in the late 19th century, but mass production with a focus on higher producing trees, prettier skin, larger size and improved storage qualities like thicker skin ultimately degraded flavor. By the 1980’s they were chewy, thick-skinned, globs of bland prettiness. It must have happened relatively suddenly. In the early '70s you could still get a truly delicious red delicious. I remember buying one from the vending machine at school that I swear was the best apple I ever had. Then by the '80s, just like you said, all the flavor had been bred out of them. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/30 "2013-05-09T02:56:17Z")
> [@Anonymous User](#): > > Not if you get them organic and non-GMO from Whole Foods. Or so they’d have you believe, cruncher. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/31 "2013-05-09T02:56:21Z")
I was meh about apples until last year when our neighbors had an overabundance from their golden delicious tree and gave us a 5 gallon box of them. I’ve never had such a delicious apple in my 43 years, though I still hate cooked apples. What we couldn’t used before they went soft I sliced and froze, then pureed as needed for baking; they were lovely. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/32 "2013-05-09T03:06:56Z")
This Pitting pisses me off. I don’t like most fruit very much, but I like apples. They’re an American fruit which makes them exceptional, and a necesary ingredient in apple pie, the most American of all pies. So take your apple hating ways back to France or where ever you come from. Here in the good old US of A we love mom, apple pie, and Chevrolets and don’t you forget it. Except when the skin gets stuck in my teeth. That’s really annoying, and probably the result of some commie plot to make us stop liking apples. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/33 "2013-05-09T03:28:09Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > I was meh about apples until last year when our neighbors had an overabundance from their golden delicious tree and gave us a 5 gallon box of them. I’ve never had such a delicious apple in my 43 years, though I still hate cooked apples. What we couldn’t used before they went soft I sliced and froze, then pureed as needed for baking; they were lovely. When I was in middle school my family visited some cousins on my dad’s side who own an Apple farm in North Carolina. They sent us home with six crates of the most delicious apples ever and my dad made pies, apple chips, fruit leather, and the most choice apple sauce out of those apples. It was Applepolooza and it was awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/34 "2013-05-09T04:19:05Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > They’re an American fruit which makes them exceptional, Asian ;). Our common apples ( Malus domestica ) were imported by the European colonists. There are native _crabapples_. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/35 "2013-05-09T06:07:15Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Asian ;). Our common apples ( Malus domestica ) were imported by the European colonists. There are native _crabapples_. Do you have more information about crab apples native to the Americas? I was under the impression that the fruit of apples grown from seeds are pretty random. With more fruit tending towards small sour and not very edible. Every once in a while you get some good fruit and then than is propagated by grafting limbs from trees that have good apples onto other root stock. So all crab apples are from seeds of apple introduced by Europeans. And All apples you find in markets are clones of some random chance that produced good tasting fruit. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/36 "2013-05-09T06:29:08Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > So all crab apples are from seeds of apple introduced by Europeans. Nope. Here is the wiki on the genus [_Malus_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malus) and as you can see there are a slew of species, including natives like the [“sweet crabapple”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malus_coronaria). However it is this [Asian species](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malus_sieversii) that seems to be the primary progenitor of our modern orchard apples. > [@](#): > > And All apples you find in markets are clones of some random chance that produced good tasting fruit. This is mostly true, though these days I think they are more often deliberately crossing for them, rather than relying on the appearance of random mutants. So for example the Honeycrisp was bred, not found by serendipity. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/37 "2013-05-09T06:43:56Z")
Too mild for these parts. Moved to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/38 "2013-05-09T07:00:31Z")
I turn up my nose at apple pie. Apple fritters disappoint. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/39 "2013-05-09T07:03:14Z")
There are more apples in the fruit section because people buy more apples than any other fruit. Or perhaps it’s the other way around, I may have the apple cart before the horse 🙂 Generally, I like apples for convenience, because they don’t need refrigeration and are generally robust enough not to turn to complete mush in your bag or pocket (some pears are like this, but not the kind I like best,) you can eat them without peeling and, if you’re like me, you eat the whole thing down to the seeds and don’t need to find a bin for the stone or peels. They’re not my _favourite_ fruit (berries!) but they have a niche. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854/40 "2013-05-09T07:30:27Z")
Apples are fantastic, what’s wrong with apples is the same thing that’s wrong with tomatoes - we’ve allowed supermarkets to be a significant arbiter of apple aesthetics. Apples picked under-ripe, stored under refrigeration, then induced to resume ripening later have a tendency to be crisply watery and subacid - and we allowed ourselves to accept these as the features of a ‘fresh’ apple. So we’ve been conditioned to think that an apple so crunchy that it hurts your mouth is somehow the pinnacle of freshness - In fact, a \*ripe \*apple won’t necessarily be crisp and crunchy. I’m not talking about ‘mealy’ apples here, or apples where the skin is loose and wrinkly, but an apple at the peak of natural ripeness is typically juicy and softly-crunchy, not rock hard. More to the point, a ripe apple is _aromatic_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-apples/657854.md?page=3)