Spencer vs Brock smackdown

What do you get if you cross a McIntosh with a Golden Delicious? ¶ 

There are many examples of that. Today we are comparing two apples: Spencer (L) and Brock. ¶ 

Both are "Mcintosh x Golden Delicious": grown from the seed of a Mac pollinated by Golden D.

They've been off the tree for a few weeks, so I expect quality may suffer a little bit.

Of the duo, Spencer's red blush is deeper and more purple, with larger and more-prominent light lenticel dots. There are some tiny crackles of russet on one side of the apple, 

My Brock's blush is warmer and less comprehensive, leaving some of the underlying green yellow exposed. It has a longer and thicker stem. Both apples have some russet in the stem well.

Looks can vary, and for the most part, any of these differences could be erased in another harvest.

It's not simple to map these images to the ones of the apples I tasted years ago. (Those photos are below, so you can see what I mean).

Two to taste

Biting in, Spencer is tender, with fine-grained off-white flesh that has a truly subacid balance of sweet and tart.

Classic berry and wine flavors, typical of the Mac family, are married to a greater sweetness than one finds in its Canadian seed parent.

Spencer

I think Spencer would make a friendly Mac-family introduction for those who have become interested in apples by way of super sweet varieties.

Brock is a bit denser and crisper, with pale yellow flesh that suggests flowers in honey.

I attribute the former to Mac, the latter to Golden D.

Brock

It is also mild and sweet.

Both have peels that are on the chewy side, persisting into the end of the bite. Brock's skin imparted a pleasing cherry note, something I'd missed in my review.

Switching back and forth, these apple siblings do not fight with each other, but there is no particular synergy either.

Of the two, Brock is the better apple. I rated it "worth choosing" when implementing my rating system for apples back in 2012. But both are appealing choices.

My only criticism is that the texture could be better. That likely suffered from extended storage. They might both be better fresh off the tree.

Nonetheless I can easily imagine either doing justice to a Thanksgiving crumble or pie.

No two alike

In any case, the purpose of this exercise was not to pick a winner but to explore the heterozygosity of apples: the way that this fruit varies. 

Two varieties of the same parents are palpably not the same, yet the family resemblance is present.

Links

• Spencer
• Brock
• Heterozygosity
• Subacid