Egremont Russet *

Egremont Russet is regularly available in supermarkets in the United Kingdom, and the sample in my first photo is one I found in London. ¶ 

Its appearance, the rough golden brown with a bit of mustard yellow peeping though, was typical of the Egremonts I saw. ¶ 

However, my freshest and best example was the one from Keeper's Nursery, and it looked just a little different.

That one was a bit more oblate, with essentially no ribbing. The supermarket Egremont was modestly ribbed with a classical shape.

There's a photo below. Lighting, however, exaggerates the differences between the two apples.

You can click on either photo for a closer look.

Both apples are medium-sized, with open calyxes and the same rough golden brown russet. The fresher one is tinted slightly green at the top and, near the bottom, has a reddish quality.

It's possible the greenish tone is the underlying peel showing though. The lenticels are slightly raised showing as faint green underneath the russet.

Both have thick stems poking out of shallow stem wells.

That russet flavor

Inside, sweet, fine-grained light yellow flesh tastes like vanilla custard with a citrus accent that is more orange and lemon than anything else. There's pear flavor and a nutty hint of butterscotch.

This is probably the sweetest russet I have ever had, but there is enough balancing acidity to keep all these flavors in play. Very nice.

The National Fruit Collection dates Egremont from 1873.

That British supermarkets routinely carry this next to the Pink Lady and Braeburn (and Cox's Orange Pippin!) attests to Egremont's general popularity.

It's significant that Egremont is one of the the perhaps half-dozen-odd varieties in a London supermarket. (Yes, the selection is that constrained.)

It represents a choice that we Americans do not have, unless we seek out russets from an orchard.