ISSUE 50, APPLES, Part 4: Drying Apples
Drying Apples
In 2022 the technology of freeze drying has become so proficient that virtually any apple variety can be dried retaining its characteristic aroma and flavor. Technology has obviated the need for a category of apples once very important to the American pantry, drying apples. Drying apples existed to supply an edible for of apple in those periods of late Spring when one’s tore of winter apples had been existed and before the Carolina June and other ultra early Apples became available in the market. Drying apples were sectioned and dessicated either on the stovetop on in trays in the sun. They could be consumed dry, but most were reconstituted with water for stewed apples, or for employment in baking. The classic backing apples shared several qualities: they were aromatic when dried, they were not too mushy or granular in texture, and they had little tendency to rot. Here are some of the historically important varieites: the Black Gilliflower, the Benham Brown, and the Buckingham.
BENHAM [BROWN]
Image: Big Horse Creek Farm
A versatile, medium sized apple the enjoyed a spate of popularity in the upper South from 1880 to 1910, the Benham’s origin is not known, though the concentration of plantings in Claiborne County, Tennessee, suggest a nativity there. Ripening in late July and early August, its summer maturation gave it a following among growers looking to the produce market. Its flavor was distinctive—subacid with a sugar finish with a kind of nutty depth of flavor. Some found it ideal, others too complex. Because it did not discolor when dried, it enjoyed popularity as an apple used in holiday baking—a stack cake apple. Apple historian Creighton Lee Calhoun notes that Benhams picked before fully ripe were favorite saucing apples in Virginia and Kentucky.
The Benham is an oblate, ribbed apple that sometimes tends to conical. It has a short, thick stem, a greenish yellow thin skin, sometimes touched with red on the sunside cheek, and dotted with small russet specs rimmed in green. The flesh is antique white or dull yellow, fined grained and juicy.
With the spread of refrigeration, the Benham gained a reputation as a freezer apple, usually cut into slices or wedges.
Sold under several names in Virginia, West Virginia, Ketucky, and Tennessee, it has called the Yearry, the Claiborne, and the Nat Ewing Apple. It remains widely available from dealers in historical apples.
BLACK GILLIFLOWER
One of the seedling apples that came into being in colonial New England, the Black Gilliflower was a ribbed conical large sized dark red apple that spread well into the South before the American Revolution. While its flesh is rather coarse textured, greenish white, and rather forward in flavor, the Black Gilliflower proved to be an excellent drying apple. An aromatic fruit, the fragrance remained in the dried slices. In the South an apple called the Crow’s Egg may have been identical to this. Its distinctive red-black color and oblong shape gave it eye appeal on the produce stand, but it never vied to be a market leader. Its October ripening date made it available at the time when many other varieties were ripe.
In the history of American apples, its most important contribution was its probable parentage of the Red Delicious apple. It remains widely available from dealers in antique apples, because of its great longevity as an American variety. It was among the 100 old apples selected by Old Sturbridge Village in the early 1960s to make up one of the first historic heirloom orchards in America. The Cornish Gilliflower was the parent of the Black.
“Rather large, oblong conical, very dark reddish purple in the sun; often light red, with faint approach to yellow, on the deeply shaded side; stem threefourths of an inch long; segments of the calyx closely pressed together; basin shallow, narrow, and furrowed; flesh yellowish white, with a shade of green; flavor rich, mild, sub-acid, fine; flesh tender, large grained, dry when fully ripe, which is its greatest objection. Tree a free grower, great bearer, fruit always perfectly fair, and, as a long keeper, scarcely inferior to the Roxbury Russet.” The Magazine of Horticulture, Botany, and All Useful Arts 16 (1855), 201.]
BUCKINGHAM
Image: Big Horse Creek Farm
A superlative drying apple that is said to have originated in Buckingham County, Virginia, in the 18th century and spread Southward and Westward under a host of names, including Fall Queen, Kentucky Queen, and Red Horse, the Buckingham had yellow firm flesh, a mild subacid taste, and a pleasant aroma. It was a reliable, pleasant tasting dessert apple; but a splendid dried apple. Because it did not require many chill hours, the variety became popular with growers in Georgia and Alabama, including the Cherokee orchardists in Cass Country, Georgia. It has been used as a cider apple in the 21st century and is found in numbers of heirloom variety orchards.
“Tree a moderate grower. Fruit large, oblate to round-oblate, irregular, broadly and obscurely ribbed, sides sometimes unequal; stem stout, short; cavity large, acute to acuminate, wide, deep, with heavy outspreading russet; calyx large, closed or open; basin large, abrupt, tough, pale yellow or pale green washed and mottled with red, striped and blushed with bright carmine; dots numerous, small, light or russet, mingled with others which are large, gray and areolar; calyx-tube conical.” [Ulysses Hedrick Cyclopedia of Hardy Fruits 22]