I’m tired of getting faked out by Red Delicious apples. Both seem firm until I bite in, and “Bleah!” it’s like eating styrofoam. Is there a way to determine the mealy from the crispy, juicy ones?
That’s your problem: “red delicious apples” are a misnomer. They’re red, but certainly not delicious, and barely apples. Unless you pick one right from the tree, they have absolutely no apple flavor.
Try a Granny Smith, if you must get one from the supermarket (stay away from supermarket macs unless they’re in season. You’ll thank me for that advice).
I almost never have that happen. I buy the large loose ones. Are you getting bagged apples? They never seem the same.
I inspect them closely too. I don’t mind blemishes, but I look hard for holes or bruises.
Don’t buy Red Delicious. Or Macintosh either. They’re all mealy. Granny Smith, Fuji, and Gala are all crisp and juicy. I especially like Gala the best. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a bad one.
There’s probably a list somewhere if you google “types of apples” or something like that that will tell you all the varieties and how they taste and what they are best used for: eating, baking, etc. Macintosh, for instance, are good for making applesauce because they mush down upon being cooked, but terrible for pies, where you want the pieces of apple to be somewhat firm.
If the man likes Red Delicious, he’s not going to like Granny Smiths. Well, you can like both of them, I do, but the question was how to get a firm RD.
This is going to end up in my forum, isn’t it?
From the Apple Journal, a Comprehensive Apple Variety List, including origin, common use, etc.: http://www.applejournal.com/useall01.htm
Another list is at: http://www.naturalhub.com/grow_fruit_cultivars_apple.htm
I’ve never been let down by a Cameo apple.
To test for mealiness on an apple-by-apple basis, I like to gently toss the apple up 2 or 3 inches and let it fall onto my cupped palm. A crisp, turgid apple will make what I think of as a ‘pinging’ or ‘ringing’ sound, an almost musical ‘snap’ (think of slapping a fully inflated basketball). A mealy apple yields a dull, slapping sound (like hitting an underinflated ball) and feels light for its size.
I gave up on Red Delicious apples several years ago. I read that they had been selectively grown for their color and not for their taste. They are beautiful to look at, but taste bad. I like the gala apples myself, and fugi apples.
I’m a bit of an apple fiend, since I moved to Seattle. And I doubt I will ever eat red delicious again. It really is the worst of the widely available apple types.
My number one favorite is Pink Lady. Hands down. Best flavor, best texture, best juiciness, all around.
Tied for a distant second are Gala, Fuji, Braeburn, and Cameo.
I’ll buy golden delicious and granny smith if I can’t find any of the above, but that’s rarely a problem. And I’d rather not buy apples at all than buy red delicious. Yuck.
When I was growing up we used to always have crisp, tasty red-delicious apples.
But I have completely stopped buying them for the same reasons listed. I heard that the best apples are exported to Japan where they go for much higher prices, not sure if that’s really the reason or not.
Either way, I’ve switched to Fuji and rarely disappointed. If I can’t find Fuji then Braeburn is my second choice.
Buying apples in season will help, if you’re buying them other than late summer to early winter, you’re buying apples which have been in cold storage, which increases your chances of getting mealy apples.
You might also try buying apples from a farmer’s market or such like, where your chances of getting fresh apples are much better. And what the people said, don’t buy Red Delicious, they’re bred for looks, not taste or texture, you might be better off trying Golden Delicious if you like sweet apples.
There’s a nice discussion of American apple varieties on the eGullet forums right here.
lissener is almost 100% correct except that when sweetness isn’t important I sometimes prefer Fujis so would rank them equal first. And if I can’t get a good crisp apple I will have a Nashi pear.
-
No wrinkles in the skin.
-
Not a lot of bruising.
-
The amount of time the shipment has been in the store.
-
The Point of origin verses the season at that place. You get fresh apples from New Zealand and Australia in the spring here. The origin is on the fruit or bag.
-
Apples that give off a very strong smell are fully ripe and mealy. The stack of apples emitting a miasma of ethane gas is not a good choice for crispness.
-
Apples in a plastic bag will over ripen first, because the bag concentrates the ethane gas, which hastens maturity. The stores keep the bulk of single apples in the produce cooler and that slows down the process of maturing.
-
The fruit is picked unripened when shipped any distance. The apples can be red and unripe in a store. They can be sour and mealy at the same time. I try to buy one apple first and buy more the next trip to the store. Any sure way of always finding crisp apples is destructive testing. The Delicous Apple is a hard one to ever check in a store. The flesh is hard even when it gets mealy.
As for which variety to buy, to each their own.
A new (to me) variety which is sweet-sweet and not overly complicated by tartness or sourness is Honey Crisp. I luurve me a good Gala or Fuji, but Honey Crisp might be more palatable to someone who’s a Red Delicious fan.
Wow, I thought this was gonna be about freshness and not variety, so I was gonna come in and say “here’s one solution – don’t buy Red Delicious :p”. Looks like that’s taken care of though 
I agree with WhyNot about the HoneyCrisp apples. I tried them for the first time two weeks ago and am now hooked.
I’ve not bought any Red or Golden Delicious apples in years.
So if the opinion against Red Delicious apples is so near-unanimous, why do they still sell so many (or if they don’t sell, why do stores carry so many)?
I used to think that I just didn’t like apples, until I started eating other kinds several years ago. Red Delicious apples are typically hard, dry, and have a bitter skin. I like apples to be softer, juicy, and sweet/tart. Galas, Pink Ladies, Fujis, Jonagolds, all are wonderful. The Braeburns I’ve had are too hard, as are Granny Smiths.
The supermarket produce buyers ruined the Red Delicious apple. They insisted on an apple that looked great to the customer and had long storage and shelf life. The growers planted trees to produce that type of apple. The problem was that the variation of the Red Delicious that satisfied the criteria tasted like (fill in the blank).
After the consumer started to catch on, the sales of Red Delicious fell fast. The Granny Smith came to market and because of its crispness and taste, took over. Other new breeds, many with some red color have also become popular. The latest one I’ve found is the Honey Crisp. However, the old Red Delicious trees are still out there and producing. Many of those old trees are in the state of Washington and now the apple business in the state of Washington is suffering for its sins.
The Red Delicious will come back. Orchards are reverting to the old breed that wasn’t a big, didn’t look quite as good and didn’t have as much shelf life but they taste great. You have to buy them in season. Don’t expect to get good Red Delicious after December or before October. An orchard farmer told me that the Red Delicious needs some cold nights before picking in order to set the sugar.
The best thing is to find an orchard with some young Red Delicious trees and get them as soon as they are picked. Look for orchards or farmer’s markets that get their fruit from the Northeast. Many of those orchards have replaced their bad Red Delicious trees.
Good luck and hopefully someday the Red Delicious will regain its cache as a true delicacy.
Before this season, I would have said that Cameo and Jonagold were my two favorites – especially Cameo, I love those apples – but then this year we went to a local pick-your-own-apples orchard and brought home a 10-lb bag of Winesap, and oh my good God, I could eat those things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and never get tired of them. They’re crisp, juicy, and sweet with just enough tartness to make them really interesting but not pucker your mouth like a sour apple. They are the best apple variety I have ever tasted. If you can find some in your area, I would highly recommend them.
I’m in the habit of making a small indent into an apple with my thumb, and this can weed out mealy apples, although it is not 100% effective. If the slight crushing feeling I get from the indentation feels sufficiently crisp, then I’m willing to overlook when eating the very small bruise that I’ve just created.
Also, sometimes cutting up an apple before eating reduces the negative impact of slight mealiness - it has to do with the way one bites a whole apple vs. biting slices.
FWIW, I can tolerate slight mealiness in a Red Delicious moreso than in a Golden, so when selection in the market is limited I’ll select the Reds. Gala, Fuji, or Braeburn are generally preferable, though.
BTW, love the apple discussion - like many of the posters, I do like a good apple.