Fruit
Apple
ManzanaPomaMalus domestica
It's harvested in late summer and autumn, but cold stores keep it on sale all year. In season, freshly picked, it crunches differently.
When
Around: Aug–Feb · At its best: Sept–Nov
Around: Aug–Feb · At its best: Sept–Nov
Around: Feb–Aug · At its best: Mar–May
Around here
Catalonia is apple country: Poma de Girona PGI (Golden, Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith, Red Delicious, Pink Lady…) comes from Empordà, Gironès and La Selva, and Lleida, in Segrià and Pla d'Urgell, has plenty of orchards too. For baking, look for reineta: tart, floury and perfect roasted. In Catalan cooking apples go into allioli de poma and old-fashioned baked apples, pomes al forn.
At the market
- Firm under your thumb and heavy; if it gives, it's usually mealy.
- Taut, glossy skin, no wrinkles or bruises. Small spots or reineta's rough russeting are normal.
- It should smell of apple near the stem.
- Choose by use: tart, firm ones (Granny Smith, reineta) for baking and tarts; sweet, crunchy ones (Fuji, Gala) for eating raw.
At home
- In the fridge drawer they stay crisp three or four weeks; in the fruit bowl, one.
- They give off lots of ethylene: keep them away from kiwis, lettuces and leafy greens unless you want those to ripen or yellow.
- And the other way round: an apple in a bag with hard avocados or kiwis ripens them sooner.
- Once cut, a squeeze of lemon stops it browning.
If you have too much
- Compote: chopped with a little water, cinnamon and not much sugar; it freezes very well in jars.
- Dried rings: thin, cored, in the oven at 80 °C for a few hours or in a dehydrator.
- Jelly from the peels and cores, which are full of pectin.
- Freeze wedges already sautéed in butter and sugar for quick tarts.
In the kitchen
- Baked apples: cored reinetas with sugar, cinnamon and a splash of sweet wine.
- Apple allioli with botifarra sausage or grilled rabbit.
- Salad with celery, walnuts and blue cheese.
- Botifarra or pork loin with sautéed apple.
- Apple tart or tarte tatin, with the apples well caramelised.
What it brings
Per 100 g, raw.
- Energy
- 52 kcal
- Water
- 86% water
- Carbs
- 13.8 g
- Sugars
- 10.4 g
- Fibre
- 2.4 g
- Protein
- 0.3 g
Stands out for
It isn't a «source» of anything by the EU rules: you eat it because it's good, which is plenty.
Data from the USDA (FoodData Central). See the full table ↗ · How we decide what stands out
Goes with
- QuinceSept–NovRaw it's hard and harsh, but it smells so good it used to go in wardrobes to scent the clothes. Cooked, it turns pink and sweet.
- PearJul–DecPears ripen from the inside out: by the time the whole skin gives, the middle has gone. Check the neck, not the belly.
- PumpkinSept–FebIt's harvested in autumn and, whole, keeps for months without a fridge: it was the vegetable that lasted till February. In Spanish, «giving someone pumpkins» means turning them down.
- ChestnutOct–DecBefore potatoes, chestnuts were winter bread in many European mountains. Today they mostly mean smoke in the street and hot newspaper cones in your hands.