Pound Sweet (Pumpkin Sweet)

Cooking apples, like Pound Sweet, are not necessarily good to eat. If so, that does not make them bad cooking apples.

Today's is a hefty one, though I can't vouch for its exact weight, name notwithstanding. 

I notice right away its extreme ribbing, which remind me of the excellent culinary variety, Calville Blanc d'Hiver.

Unlike Calville this is green all over its shiny peel, with faint large lenticels you must look closely to see. The bottom half of the fruit has a faint purple-brown cast, which might be a blush (or not).

My Pound Sweet is only middling firm in hand—there's some give and I daresay I could dent it with my thumb if I squeezed hard enough. Pound Sweet also has an open calyx and a wonderful sweet aroma.

Inside the fruit is yielding and a little granular, a medium-fine-grained light yellow.

There is extensive light brown discoloration in a region about a quarter inch deep from the peel around the bottom hemisphere of this apple. I took it for bruising at first but its texture is the same as the rest of the apple, though the flavor is not as good.

This is the source of the "purple-brown cast" I noted before eating.

Apart for this, the flavors are very mild, sweet with almost no acidity, with perhaps a little mellon and cream soda.

I don't know how she cooks, or if another sample would be better, but this one holds no charms for me. Fortunately the Roxbury Russets have been very good this fall and I have a few right here—Cheers!

Pound Sweet originated in Connecticut in the early 19th century.

Most sources describe better texture and flavor than mine, so I guess this remains on my "to do" list for another season.

In the mean time if you know Pound Sweet and would like to correct my first impression, please use the comments below. You'd be doing everyone a favor.

Update: I got ahold of a better example in 2016. My review is here.