Adam's Apples

Behold, not for the first time , Calville Blanc d'Hiver, the classic French cooking apple. I'm glad to have two of these, but also disappointed. Here's why.

before after What do you want to be when you grown up? These apples are grafted, so there is really no doubt about that here. Behold the Calville Blanc D'Hiver .

Tarte Tatin is the classic French apple tart, a splendid if finicky marriage of Pâte Brisée crust and Calville Blanc d'Hiver apples. On Thanksgiving I had Calville but did not want to fuss with that crust. So I took a leaf from Rowan Jacobsen’s book, Apples of Uncommon Character , and made his easier version, which he playfully calls “Tarte Tintin.”

When I saw those Calville Blancs at Farmers Market the day before Thanksgiving, I knew I had to bake a real tarte aux pommes. My first tarte aux pommes Despite the black bits this was a delicious holiday desert, and what really made it so were the apples.

This legendary French pastry apple is not really for eating out of hand. But eat we must. Calville is a large medium (or small large) apple with pronounced, even exaggerated, ribbing. It is yellow tinged with green and there is a partial blush over perhaps a quarter of the peel. Large green lenticels are prominent though not in the blush. In hand the unbroken fruit feels firm and solid and smells of pear and bananas. Inside Calville Blanc is a light yellow with a tender crunch, fine-grained and dense. Its flavor balance tilts slightly to the tart but there is sweetness too, to frame pear flavors with a hint of banana in the finish. There are also some unusual salty, mineral notes.