In this tasty episode, join Annette as she provides all the tools you need to appreciate an apple like a glass of fine wine and 10 quirky apple facts.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSOR…

This episode is sponsored by Food Sensitivity Solutions, your One Stop Shop for Food Sensitivity Testing, Education and Support.   If you are suffering, it might be your food that’s making you sick.  For listeners of this podcast, food sensitivity solutions is offering:

• A FREE 15 minute consultation with one of their registered dietitian nutritionists trained in food sensitivities.  To claim your spot CLICK HERE
• A FREE 7 day clean diet meal plan This simple plan contains no gimmicks and no expensive supplements. Heal yourself with 100% real whole nutritious food! CLICK HERE to get the plan!

LINKS TO RESOURCES DISCUSSED…

• Scholarly article on apple phytochemicals and their health benefits
• Spectrum of Apple Flavors from the Sage Fruit Company – learn apple appreciation
• Wine aroma wheel

SHOW TRANSCRIPT…

Not sure if I shared this with you, but watermelon is my favorite fruit, closely followed by apples.  So, I’m always in mourning during those few weeks in late summer when it’s after watermelon season but before Apples season.

Last week marked the official beginning of fall. So to celebrate, I’m doing a show on apples, which to me go hand-in-hand with the fall season. And did I mention that I just finished up a very delicious Honeycrisp apple?  So, as with my last episode on olive oil, my purpose is not to provide you with a broad overview of apples but rather to focus on how to appreciate the aroma, texture and taste of apples.  But first I do want to provide you with 10 facts about apples so you can show off and be an apple know-it-all.  And then after these 10 fun facts, I’ll give you all the information you need to appreciate apples like a glass of fine wine!

So, here is my Top Ten List of a random assortment of apple fun facts….and in the spirit of David Letterman, we’ll start with #10 and work our way down…

#10 -The top 10 apple varieties sold in the U.S. are: Gala, Red Delicious, Fuji, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Cripp’s Pink/Pink Lady®, Braeburn, and Jazz®.

#9 – There are about 7,000 varieties of apples in the world so even if you tried a different apple every day it would take you nearly 20 years to sample the entire spectrum.  Of this 7,000, about 100 varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States.  There is a really cool website, https://www.orangepippin.com, that catalogs over 600 varieties of apples and includes tasting notes.  The website is named after England’s most famous apple variety: Cox’s Orange Pippin which is widely regarded as the finest of all dessert apples.

#8 – Apples are the 2nd most consumed fruit in the US (second only to bananas!) American’s eat about 65 apples a year.

#7 – Apples are a member of the rose family. Botanical name = Aplicus Rosacea.  The rose connection may seem strange until we remember that roses make rose hips, which are fruits similar to the apple. Other popular foods in this family include apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, pears, raspberries, and almonds.

#6-  It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider.  Cider is raw apple juice that has not undergone a filtration process to remove coarse particles of pulp or sediment. Historically, all cider was left in its natural state, unprocessed.  Airborne yeasts present on apple skins or cider making machinery start fermentation in the finished cider. Left on its own, alcohol develops and forestalls the growth of harmful bacteria.

#5 – Ever wondered why apples float? It’s because 25 percent of their volume is made up by air.  The tradition of bobbing for apples began as a British courting ritual, popular among young ladies and their potential beaus. There were several variations of game: in one set of rules, each apple was assigned to a potential mate. The bobber would then attempt to bite into the apple named for the young man she desired. If it only took her one try, they were destined for romance. If she succeeded with her second attempt, he would court her but their love would fade. If it took three tries, their relationship was doomed. Another approach to the game was a race to be the first to bite an apple; the first to emerge successful would be the first to marry.

#4 – Don’t peel your apples.  Two-thirds of the fiber and many of the healthy phytochemicals in apples are found in the peel.   What purpose do these phytochemicals have?  Several studies have specifically linked apple consumption with a reduced risk for cancer, especially lung cancer. A reduced risk of cardiovascular disease has been associated with apple consumption. Apple consumption has been inversely linked with asthma and has also been positively associated with general pulmonary health. Apple consumption may also be associated with a lower risk for diabetes.

#3 – Apple seeds contain a cyanide compound. Luckily, the body can detoxify cyanide in small doses, and the number of apple seeds it takes to pack a lethal punch is so huge that even the most dedicated of apple eaters is extremely unlikely to ingest enough pips to cause any harm.

#2 – You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch.” Well, research studies agree! An apple that has been bruised from being dropped (or that has been damaged in some other way) will start to release unusual amounts of ethylene gas. This ethylene gas can pose a risk to other apples that have not been damaged and greatly decreases their shelf life. For this reason, it’s important to handle apples with tender loving care, and also to remove any damaged apples from groups of apples stored in bulk.

#1 – There is only one apple native to North America—the crabapple.  Apples are believed to have originated in an area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Apples were introduced to North America by colonists in the 17th century, and the first apple orchard on the North American continent was planted in Boston by Reverend William Blaxton in 1625. The abundance of apple trees in America was helped largely by Johnny Appleseed, a folk hero and pioneer apple farmer in the early 1800’s. Although legend paints a picture of Johnny as a dreamy wanderer, planting apple seeds throughout the countryside, research reveals him to be a careful, organized businessman, who over a period of nearly fifty years, bought and sold tracts of land and developed thousands of productive apple trees.  He kept ahead of the new settlements in the early 1800’s and each year planted apple seeds farther west.

Hope you enjoyed those 10 facts about apples.  I know that I elaborated quite a bit on them but wanted to give you some nice juicy tidbits!  So, now it’s time to move onto the part of the show where we learn how to appreciate apples like a glass of fine wine!

Apple Appreciation 101

The overall flavor of an apple is dependent on the balance sweetness and sourness with a touch of bitter, the presence or absence of volatile aromatic compounds and some polyphenolic compounds contributing to astringent mouthfeels.

The most common sensory information that you will see regarding apples is their ratio of sweetness to sourness.  All apples contain both of these basic tastes in varying degree.  The best depiction that I’ve found of this is a visual called the Spectrum of Apple Flavors from the Sage Fruit Company.  I’ll post this image in the show notes but it essentially places common apple varieties along a continuum from sweet to tart.  For instance, most sweet/least tart are Fuji apples and most tart/least sweet and Granny Smith apples.  Honeycrisp, my personal favorite is slightly more tart than sweet.  It is also important to know that sweetness does not always correlate to the actual sugar content in the apple, which is usually measured by something called Brix (an interesting aside on Brix is that my local Wegmans grocery store sometimes markets their fruit by sharing the Brix levels).  So, you can have an apple with a high sugar content (or high Brix) that is also very sour.  And sour taste suppresses our perception of sweet taste.  This is referred to as a basic taste interaction.  Another example of a basic taste interaction is putting sugar in coffee to make it less bitter.  The coffee still contains just as many bitter compounds, but we don’t perceive them as much since sweetness suppresses bitterness. So, to sum this up: when considering eating quality of apples, the relationship of sugars to total acids is often more informative than the sugar or acid contents separately.

The types of sugars in ripe apples are mainly sucrose, glucose, and fructose in the approximate ratio 1:1:2. Apples tasting of honey often have more than the usual amount of fructose. This is seen in Golden Delicious apples that are fresh and ripe.  It should be noted that fructose, known as fruit sugar, is over 1.5 times sweeter than sucrose (the chemical name for white sugar).  Some volatile aromatic compounds can also contribute to a honey flavor and may enhance perceived sweetness.  We’ll talk more about these compounds in just a bit.

Now, the main acid found in apples is known as malic acid. Malic acid is also found in wine, rhubarb, and grapes. It is sometimes used as an added flavoring agent to impart a tart taste to foods. The name malic is based on “malum,” the Latin word for apple.  Apples also contain acetic acid, also known as Vitamin C.  This is why apples are a good source of vitamin C.

The other basic taste found in apples is bitter.  We normally don’t think of apples as bitter, but they are slightly bitter.  Bitter taste in apples comes from a wide range of polyphenolic compounds.  Polyphenols are a class of health promoting plant based chemicals.  Tannins, one type of polyphenols in apples, are also found in wine, especially red wine. Tannins provide bitterness as well as what is known as astringent mouthfeel, which is a drying or puckering sensation in the mouth.  Bitterness and astringency may sound like a bad thing, but in small amounts they contribute to the tasty complexity of the apple eating experience.   Bitterness and astringency is often strongest in or just below the skin.  This may be why many people like to peel their apples.  But remember, these bitter producing compounds are also extremely good for you!

Now, the most interesting nuances of an apple’s flavor comes from the volatile aromatics released when smelling and chewing. Classes of these compounds include: esters (fruity), alcohols (fruity or earthy), aldehydes (appley and slightly grassy), and ethers and terpenes (perfumey).  There are over 200 distinct volatile aromatic compounds responsible for the subtlety of flavor within apples.  For instance, the four most predominate compounds that contribute to the flavor of a gala apples are methylbutyl acetate, butyl acetate, hexyl acetate and butanol.  The contributions of these singular chemicals as is relates to perceived flavor is not always straightforward but often an interplay of many.

Some of these compounds contribute to flavors such as honey, earthy, floral, spicy, pear-like, fennel, strawberry, raspberry, melon, blackcurrant, green grassy, grape, banana, and violets.  Some of the flavors are characteristic of specific apple varieties.  But unfortunately the level of reporting regarding specific flavors in apples is not well documented and most apple tasting guides will focus on sweet vs. tart and levels of crispness and juiciness.  Some say that the Pink Lady variety has banana aromatics and the Cortland variety can by spicy and floral-like.   And these various flavors can be fleeting based on the freshness and storage condition of the apples.  My advice: take a bite, close your eyes and savor the flavor.  What flavors do you perceive.?  In fact, some experts suggest using a wine aroma wheel to provide guidance as to the wide array of flavors that can be perceived in apples.  I’ll also include a link to a wine aroma wheel in my show notes if you want to try this out.

The composition of volatile flavor components changes with maturation and ripening.  When apples become overripe, flavors may be produced through enzymatic reactions forming free radicals.  Off-odors and -flavors appear typically towards the end storage life and include acetaldehydes, ethanol and reaction products from fungal activity.  Apples generally will start to take on moldy and fermented flavors while desirable flavors tend to go away.

When it comes to eating enjoyment, texture is equally important to flavor.  There is almost nothing worse than biting into an apple that looks delicious and crispy on the outside only to get a big mouthful of grainy, tasteless, sawdust.  This phenomenon is known as “mealiness”.  Mealiness is when the “glue” holding the apple’s cells together gets weak. When this happens, a bite of apple will just disintegrate into individual cells when we chew instead of holding firmly together. To test for mealiness, try tapping the side of the apple: good ones will sound hollow while mealy ones will sound dense and dull.  Mealiness happens when apples are old or improperly stored.

In addition to mealiness, experts evaluate apples on the following textural criteria:

• Hardness = the amount of force needed to bit into the apple. Hardness is also referred to as firmness.  A good continuum for hardness would be McIntosh apples (very soft) to granny smith (very hard/firm).  Generally speaking, harder/firmer apples hold up better in pies while softer apples are good for making applesauce.
• Crispy = hard but easily breakable; brittle, firm and fresh; not soft or wilted. Honeycrisp apples are probably the best example here.
• Juiciness = the amount of good tasting flavorful liquid in the mouth when chewing
• Sogginess = the amount of waterlike flavorless liquid in the mouth when chewing (I often find Red Delicious apples from my local gas station mini-mart to be soggy)
• Toughness of Peel = the amount of peel left in the mouth after 8 chew with molars
• Starchy = apples in which the carbohydrate has not fully converted to sugar. Try eating corn starch straight up to fully understand what the phenomena feels like in the mouth.

Some tasting tips:

• Refrigerate Your Apples—But Don’t Eat Them Cold: Some fruit, including apples, release a gas called ethylene when ripening. Sticking apples in your fridge halts this process. To keep apples crisp—and texture is a key factor for enjoyment—refrigerate them.  Volatile aromatic compounds are easier to perceive at room temperature so leave them out for an hour or two before enjoying.
• Don’t Judge an Apple by Its Skin: You might not like the way an apple looks but you might like the taste.  Also, certain colors of skin may sway your opinion on how it tastes.  So a yellow apple could have a grape flavor and a red apple can have green grassy flavors.
• Fall is a great time to host an apples tasting party: Cut up several apples and blind code them so you don’t know the breed. You can use my apple tasting evaluation form (found in my show notes as a guide).

THANKS FOR LISTENING!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The Food Sommelier Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates.

Until next time!

PRAISE FOR THE FOOD SOMMELIER PODCAST: DelishOctober 21, 2016 by Duffash from United StatesLoving the interview about water! Yes, water can taste amazing! Great info!Must listen to to this show!September 19, 2016 by Erin Peisach from United StatesPacked with easy to understand and entertaining nutrition content!My food inspiration!September 18, 2016 by SkippyJohnJones145 from United StatesI'm so glad I found this podcast as it provides a deeper level of food appreciation than other I've listened too. I'm now more able to eat mindfully and fully enjoy the food I'm eating.Love of a foodi!April 24, 2016 by MattB4SBB from AustraliaIt's awesome. Just awesome! All about food. My ideal place of relaxation!Great for the Food LoverMarch 28, 2016 by BrandonTBM from United StatesThe perfect podcast for any food lover looking to rediscover a new type of relationship with food.Love it!!March 27, 2016 by Animartrom12 from United StatesHelpful, informative, encouraging, honest, reasonable... I just love how she delivers her information.. Not scary, like helping you take baby steps to a better you;-)Instant ObsessionMarch 24, 2016 by jlwolf from United StatesAs a dietetics student, I was Immediately HOOKED on the Food Sommelier. Annette is a true inspiration for me in a fascinating field. The diversity of her guests are all equally as intersting and knowledgable in nutrition and the science surrounding it. I really enjoy the food reviews.They offer insight into the healthier menu options chain restautants offer but most of us overlook.Making Food Fun & SimpleMarch 9, 2016 by NutritionGenius1 from United StatesAnnette has such a good outlook on food and brings on some of the top experts and movers and shakers in the food/nutrition world. There is so much to learn from all of her guests and even her own experience! You will gobble this up and learn new tips and tricks to incorporate into your every day life.Great podcast!February 5, 2016 by DCulve from United StatesI LOVE this podcast! I love all things food and this podcast delivers. The interviews and topics are super interesting. I especially loved the podcast with the nutrition diva. Annette does a great job hosting!More than meets the eyeNovember 16, 2015 by Jmccracken01 from AustraliaThis podcast is about more than just 'food'. It's about understanding the value that great food can bring to your life, your relationship, your vitality and your energy. While only new, I'm finding it insightful and interesting. Thanks.Excellent Podcast!November 14, 2015 by Nehemiah7483 from United StatesAnnette's expertise about nutrition and food is awesome. Lots of practical and insightful information about all things food.Love it!November 14, 2015 by Britany Felix from United StatesI LOVE that she reviews normal restaurants instead of the fancy places in New York that I'll never eat at. This information is something I can actually use to help me choose the best place to eat healthy when the hubby and I feel like going out to dinner.Great podcast!November 14, 2015 by ItsMeRD from United StatesSuch great food info in here, just listening makes me hungry!Awesome niche and great showNovember 13, 2015 by Podcast Mom from United StatesLove this podcast and learning so much!A Tastey Show!November 13, 2015 by Cleaning coach from United StatesYour interviews are great and are perfect for someone like me who isn't a foodie, but wants to eat healthier.Good podcast for those who are concerned about what we eatNovember 13, 2015 by HGCIII from United StatesAnnette brings practical information to us on what and how we eat. The resturant reviews will save us time and money when eating out - and allow for great food. Eating wholesome and healty food at home or when eating out is so important for all of us. Well done - keep moving forward.Great showNovember 13, 2015 by vwdieselnet from United StatesI really enjoy ways to eat better especially with my new exercise routine.Man I’m hungry!!!November 10, 2015 by Alexandra B-P from United StatesFun and lively show that makes food fun! The host goes in depth into food giving you a whole new insight to this exciting world. Love the nutritional touches. Overall - A+!Awesome showNovember 8, 2015 by Aditya of My Seven Chakras from CanadaWarning- don't listen to this show on an empty stomach! Loved the episode about Olive Garden. Brought back fond memories of the classic spaghetti nepolitana that i always used to order! I look forward to more Great show!November 8, 2015 by Gene_HPLN from United StatesAwesome topics! Food is very important.. we are what we eat. If we don’t take care of our body, nobody else will. Good job!Bon AppetitNovember 7, 2015 by Joel Boggess from United StatesWe all need fresh ideas, relevant information, and steps for what to do next.
Way to take action and make this show happen Annette! Joel and Dr Pei
Husband and wife hosts of ReLaunchAnnette makes food FUN!!!November 6, 2015 by JeffStuart from United StatesThis is not just some food critic. The Food Sommelier is on a whole other level. With her expertise and engaging interview style, Annette you will teach you to appreciate healthy food in ways you never new existed. Whether it's a simple mango, or an entire lunch at your local Olive Garden, you will learn that a meal is not just a means to fill our bellies, but can also be a nutritional experience to be thoroughly enjoyed with every bite. And despite the fact that she's highly-educated, and a long-time registered professional, this podcast is hardly clinical. Annette has done an amazing job at making sure this podcast is not only enlightening, but entertaining. Trust me, if you eat, and care about what you eat, you MUST check it out for yourself!!!Speaks to my healthy sweet toothNovember 6, 2015 by Danny Johnson -Flipping Junkie from United StatesI’m always looking for new healthy and tasty ways to improve my diet. This show is great and I love the way every episode is fun and engaging.Nice StartNovember 6, 2015 by mdaciuk from CanadaI like the podcast and the reviews of restaurants. Nice episode 002 and the content you provided. Never knew that about the Olive Garden. Keep them coming.A+ PodcastNovember 6, 2015 by Gisele_Oliveira from United StatesThis podcast is a MUST listen. I love the topic and as a busy person who is trying to maintain a healthier lifestyle this podcast is exactly what I was looking for.

The post Episode 043: Apple Appreciation 101 appeared first on Food Sommelier.