Adam's Apples

This apple's name mean—oh wait, no it doesn't. (And shouldn't that be des Reinettes?)  ¶  Etymological questions aside, I have two of these, both on the small side of large, round, slightly oblate, with the merest hint of ribbing.  ¶  Both have significant russeting on the unblushed peel, which is a muted green-yellow.

No new apple has had the buildup and ballyhoo enjoyed by today's variety. I have been hearing about it for years. Today we'll learn if Sweetango lives up to its reputation.Sweetango is breathtakingly beautiful. The glazed red blush of many of the the samples I saw ran strikingly deep and dark on the sunward side, though elsewhere the color is more of a pink wash tinged a bit orange, no doubt from the underlying yellow of the peel.

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.

Pomme Gris and Lady Apple There's an old French children's rhyme, nowadays rendered as follows: Pomme de reinette et pomme d'api Tapis, tapis rouge Pomme de reinette et pomme d'api Tapis, tapis gris. In English: Pippin Apple and Lady Apple, Carpet, red carpet, Pippin Apple and Lady Apple, Carpet, gray carpet. describing a carpet ("tapis") of red and gray apples lying on the ground. Russets perhaps, for the gray.

Medium-sized, large for a russet, this apple has a rough golden jacket over bright green peel. Some blushed stripes peep though at intervals, and a small patch of dull red blush is mostly russet free. Lenticels are also full of russet and really only noticeable in the blush, though they do bulge out slightly into small tactile bumps. Foolishly I held on to this one a few weeks longer than I needed and there's a bit of give to it when I squeeze, but russets can hold up marvelously and it is only November 12.

The larger of my two samples is medium big, classically shaped (though lopsided) with just a hint of ribbing. The smaller sample is oblate.  On both, a dull red blush covers nearly all the yellow-green surface to differing degrees of streaky translucency. Tan lenticels of varying sizes irregularly mark the surface. The larger apple had a few soft spots, from handling or perhaps Tropical Storm Irene, and was generally inferior. That's the one I photographed, but my tasting notes are based on the smaller, better Domine.

Last year a reader asked about the practice of "managed varieties," restricting to a cartel the rights to grow the hottest new apples. Also called club apples, the licenses to grow these fruits fund the marketing that helps to create demand for them (or, if you like, that brings them gently before a discerning public). Meanwhile another reader was already looking at club apples and their implications for agriculture, and this week he published his work in the New Yorker. John Seabrook (" Crunch ") tells a fascinating story that includes a brief history of the fruit before zeroing in on the apple club that grows Sweetango, heir (apparently) to Honeycrisp. His enthusiasm for this crisp and flavorful variety is infectious.