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Guide To Picking The Best Apples – Canning, Eating Fresh, Baking & More!

Making applesauce, apple crisp, apple pie or just want to know what are the best apples for eating fresh? Check out our guide to picking the best apples…we cover everything from the best apples for dehydrating to making apple jelly and everything in between!

Guide To Picking The Best Apples - Making applesauce, apple crisp, apple pie or just want to know what are the best apples for eating fresh? Check out our guide to picking the best apples...we cover everything from the best apples for dehydrating to making apple jelly and everything in between!

Guide To Picking The Best Apples

Whether you grow your own apples in your backyard or buy them at the farmers market, grocery store or pick your own farm it is always a good idea to know what kind of apples to use for whatever dish you are making.

Some apples are just plain better for cooking versus eat fresh. Some apples are more sweet and some apples are more tart. Some apples have flesh that holds it shape when cooked and some apples are easier to process into applesauce or apple butter.

Growing up there were really only three apple varieties that I can recall eating… Red Delicious, Golden Delicious and Granny Smith. With a better open trade market and better transportation we now have a much broader variety of fresh apples to choose from in the grocery stores. Farmers markets and pick your own apple farms will have a better selection of locally grown apples.

Apple season usually runs from late July to Late October for locally grown apples. But these days many apple varieties have been bred to have better and longer storage times so we can even get delicious apples all year long!

But how do we choose? Here are Crock-Pot Ladies best suggestions for what are the best apples to pick for various uses. Where possible we have included some links to recipes that we have to use up those apples in your slow cooker.

Best Apples For Applesauce & Apple Butter

Best Apples For Applesauce & Apple Butter:

When you make either applesauce or apple butter more than likely you are going to can it in jars for later. Some folks opt to freeze it instead and of course if you make small batches you can eat it straight from the fridge for a few days.

We think it is best to use 2 to 3 different varieties of apples when making applesauce and apple butter because each apple brings it’s own flavor profile…from sweet to tart. And because you are going to be cooking these apples down quite a bit you want to use apples that have flavors that hold up to prolonged cooking and canning. Here are our favorite apples for applesauce and apple butter…

  • Ambrosia Apples – Firm flesh with a sweet flavor reminiscent of pear with low acidity.
  • Braeburn Apples – Firm flesh with a combination of sweet and tart flavor and do not release a lot of liquid when cooked.
  • Cameo Apples – Sweet firm and crisp flesh with an aromatic flavor.
  • Crispin Apples – Also known as ” Mutsu”, juicy apple with a slightly tarter flavor than Golden Delicious makes great sauce.
  • Cortland Apples – Very white flesh and sweeter than a McIntosh apple.
  • Empress Apples – Coarse-grained flesh with a flavor that is sweet and spicy reminiscent of apple cider.
  • Fuji Apples – One of our favorites! A crisp and clean flesh that is nice and sweet and gets even sweeter in storage. Long storage life!
  • Gala Apples – Fine textured flesh with a sweet aromatic flavor.
  • Golden Delicious Apples – Sweet apple with a mild flavor. The flesh stays chunky when cooked and does not easily break down making it great for those who like chunky applesauce.
  • Granny Smith Apples – Crisp flesh that holds up well to baking and cooking with a bright tart flavor that mellows a bit as it ages.
  • Honeygold Apples – Yellowish-white flesh with a flavor that is slightly sweeter but similar to that of a Golden Delicious.
  • Jazz Apples – Hard and crisp flesh that is juicy with a tangy and sweet flavor.
  • Jonagold Apples -Fluffily crisp and juicy flesh that is sweet and has just enough acidity to appeal to a wide audience.
  • Jonalicious Apples – Very firm crisp flesh with a sweet and tart flavor that gets sweeter the longer it is stored.
  • Jonathan Apples – Crisp flesh that is a mostly tart apple perfect for sauces!
  • McIntosh Apples – Tart apple with tender white flesh.
  • Melrose Apples – A creamy white fleshed apple that is nice and firm with a flavor that is mildly acidic but not too much.
  • Pink Lady Apples – Crisp firm & juicy flesh that is a combination of zesty, tart and sweet.

Best Apples For Canned Apple Pie Filling

Best Apples For Canned Apple Pie Filling:

Making your own homemade, home canned apple pie filling is a great way to use up a bountiful harvest of apples. Plus you get to control what is in your apple pie filling! To make a homemade apple pie all you need to do is make (or buy) a pie crust, dump a jar of canned apple pie filling and top off your pie with another crust or crumb topping. Here are our favorite apples for canned apple pie filling…

  • Braeburn Apples – Firm flesh with a combination of sweet and tart flavor and do not release a lot of liquid when cooked.
  • Fuji Apples – One of our favorites! A crisp and clean flesh that is nice and sweet and gets even sweeter in storage. Long storage life!
  • Granny Smith Apples –  These are our favorite apples for apple pie filling…they are a nice tart apple that holds up well when cooked in a pie.
  • Gravenstein Apples – A nice tart apple that is great for cooking with juicy finely grained yellow flesh.
  • Jonathan Apples – Crisp flesh that is a mostly tart apple perfect for sauces!
  • Jonagold Apples – Fluffily crisp and juicy flesh that is sweet and has just enough acidity to appeal to a wide audience.
  • Pink Lady Apples – Crisp firm & juicy flesh that is a combination of zesty, tart and sweet.
  • Pippin Apples – Crisp and juicy with creamy white flesh. Has a nice sweet tart apple flavor when first picked with nice subtle spice flavors.

Best Apples For Apple Jelly, Jam, & Chutney

Best Apples For Apple Jelly, Jam, & Chutney:

If you are planning on canning up some delicious apple jelly, jam or chutney then you are going to want to try these apples. These are nice juicy apples…

  • Ambrosia Apples – Firm flesh with a sweet flavor reminiscent of pear with low acidity.
  • Braeburn Apples – Firm flesh with a combination of sweet and tart flavor and do not release a lot of liquid when cooked.
  • Cameo Apples – Sweet firm and crisp flesh with an aromatic flavor.
  • Crispin Apples – Also known as ” Mutsu”, juicy apple with a slightly tarter flavor than Golden Delicious makes great sauce.
  • Cortland Apples – Very white flesh and sweeter than a McIntosh apple.
  • Empress Apples – Coarse-grained flesh with a flavor that is sweet and spicy reminiscent of apple cider.
  • Fuji Apple Apples – One of our favorites! A crisp and clean flesh that is nice and sweet and gets even sweeter in storage. Long storage life!
  • Gala Apples – Fine textured flesh with a sweet aromatic flavor.
  • Golden Delicious Apples – Sweet apple with a mild flavor. The flesh stays chunky when cooked and does not easily break down making it great for those who like chunky applesauce.
  • Granny Smith Apples – A tart apple, pair it with a sweet apple for balance.
  • Honeygold Apples – Yellowish-white flesh with a flavor that is slightly sweeter but similar to that of a Golden Delicious.
  • Jazz Apples – Hard and crisp flesh that is juicy with a tangy and sweet flavor.
  • Jonagold Apples – Fluffily crisp and juicy flesh that is sweet and has just enough acidity to appeal to a wide audience.
  • Jonalicious Apples – Very firm crisp flesh with a sweet and tart flavor that gets sweeter the longer it is stored.
  • Jonathan Apples – Crisp flesh that is a mostly tart apple perfect for sauces!
  • McIntosh Apples – Tart apple with tender white flesh.
  • Melrose Apples – A creamy white fleshed apple that is nice and firm with a flavor that is mildly acidic but not too much.
  • Pink Lady Apples – Crisp firm & juicy flesh that is a combination of zesty, tart and sweet.

Best Apples For Baking

Best Apples For Baking:

Regardless if you are baking whole apples that have been stuffed, making a fresh apple pie or tart or some other delicious apple baked good you are going to want to pick just the right apple that will hold up in your baked goods…

  • Arkansas Black Apples – Hard and crunchy flesh that is fairly tart when fresh picked but mild down a little sweeter when stored.
  • Braeburn Apples – Firm flesh with a combination of sweet and tart flavor and do not release a lot of liquid when cooked.
  • Cortland Apples – Very white flesh and sweeter than a McIntosh apple.
  • Granny Smith Apples – Crisp flesh that holds up well to baking and cooking with a bright tart flavor that mellows a bit as it ages.
  • Honeycrisp Apples – Crisp white flesh that is not too dense. Predominately a sweet apple with not a lot of acid.
  • Jonagold Apples – Fluffily crisp and juicy flesh that is sweet and has just enough acidity to appeal to a wide audience.
  • Jonathan Apples – Crisp flesh that is a mostly tart apple perfect for sauces!
  • Melrose Apples – A creamy white fleshed apple that is nice and firm with a flavor that is mildly acidic but not too much.
  • Northern Spy Apples – A later season apple that has juicy crisp white flesh with a flavor that is rich and aromatic.
  • Rome Apples – Firm flesh that holds it’s shape well and the flavor devlops when cooked.
  • Winesap Apples – Creamy fleshed apple with a sweet almost honeyed flavor followed by some sharpness.

Best Apples For Dehydrating:

Best Apples For Dehydrating:

So another fun thing to make is fruit leather and apple chips.  Do you have a dehydrator?  I have one that I got a few years back and it is so much fun to make apple chips.  Very easy to get the apples ready as well.  The best apples to dehydrate are…

  • Fuji Apples – One of our favorites! A crisp and clean flesh that is nice and sweet and gets even sweeter in storage. Long storage life!
  • Gala Apples – Fine textured flesh with a sweet aromatic flavor.
  • Granny Smith Apples – Crisp flesh that holds up well to baking and cooking with a bright tart flavor that mellows a bit as it ages.
  • HoneyCrisp Apples – Crisp white flesh that is not too dense. Predominately a sweet apple with not a lot of acid.
  • McIntosh Apples – Tart apple with tender white flesh.
  • Pink Lady Apples – Crisp firm & juicy flesh that is a combination of zesty, tart and sweet.
  • Spartan Apples – Crunchy white flesh that is nice and juicy. A sweet apple with faint hints of berries.

Best Apples For Eating Fresh

Best Apples For Eating Fresh:

Now one of the best arguments out there are which apples are the best for eating.  I personally enjoy Fuji apples the most, not only because they taste delicious, but they are also cost effective. Fuji apples are usually reasonably priced in the grocery store AND they have a rather long storage life. So if I buy a bag and sit them on a bowl on the counter so the kids can grab an apple for a snack they will still be good for quite a long time without turning wrinkly and brown or bruising easily. But there are several other fresh eating apples that we like too….

  • Fuji Apples – One of our favorites! A crisp and clean flesh that is nice and sweet and gets even sweeter in storage. Long storage life!
  • Gala Apples – Fine textured flesh with a sweet aromatic flavor.
  • Golden Delicious Apples – Sweet apple with a mild flavor. The flesh stays chunky when cooked and does not easily break down making it great for those who like chunky applesauce.
  • Honeycrisp Apples – Crisp white flesh that is not too dense. Predominately a sweet apple with not a lot of acid.
  • Pink Lady Apples – Crisp firm & juicy flesh that is a combination of zesty, tart and sweet.

Apple Recipes To Enjoy!

So what apple is your favorite?  Leave a comment below and tell us about the neat local varieties of apples you can find in your neck of the woods…

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