There is almost nothing worse than biting into an apple that looks delicious and crispy on the outside only to get a big mouthful of grainy, tasteless sawdust. It's one of the only times we actually spit food out! What causes this travesty and is there any way to avoid being duped?
Apples become mealy when the glue holding its cells together gets weak. When this happens, a bite of apple will just disintegrate into individual cells when we chew instead of holding firmly together. The apple tastes dry because most of the water is held inside those cells, which are now harder to break open without that glue to hold them together.
Mealiness mostly happens to old apples that have been kept in storage, or in improper storage, for too long. Buying apples as close as possible to when they were picked is the surest way to avoid getting mealy ones. If you're buying out of season, try tapping the side of the apple: good ones will sound hollow while mealy ones will sound dense and dull.
If you do wind up with a bag of mealy apples, you can still use them in cooking! Cooking helps to break down the cells themselves, releasing the liquid inside. Try using them to make baked apples with oatmeal and brown sugar, a topping for pork chops, or just cook them down into applesauce.
Do you have any tricks for identifying a mealy apple?
Related: Pick Your Own Apples: For Suckers?
(Image: Flickr member Rich115 licensed under Creative Commons)
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Love this. Can you figure out a similar test to avoid mealy peaches? Thinking you're biting into a juicy, sweet peach but getting a mealy mouthful is the only thing worse than mealy apples!
Oh that's the worst! The anticipation of a super juicy peach and then...blech!!!!
Yes -- mealy peaches are horrid! (had some last week)
I think another trick is to buy fruit that is relatively heavy for its size -- if it is light, I always think chances are the fruit is mealy.
funny that y'all should mention peaches--- I was wondering if storing peaches and apples together in the same bowl could make them mealy? I just had a whole batch of apples and peaches go yuck on me, even though I only brought them home a couple days ago.
Personally, I won't buy peaches (or berries!) from the supermarket anymore. I grew up in Hawaii and for nearly three decades, *never* had a good peach. I didn't understand why people liked them: they were always either mealy or hard and unripe. Then one summer, I got one from the farmer's market because the scent from the stand was so completely overwhelming. Turned out I'd bought the "World's Best Peach, Ever." :) Who would have guessed?! Anyway, long & snarky story short, if at all possible, skip supermarket fruit and go to your local farmer's market.
As a little girl my father taught me a trick for picking crispy apples. I've never met anyone else who does this, but it's always seemed to work for me! You knock on or flick the apple with the back of your finger or knuckle. I use a 'flicking' motion (as if I were trying to annoy an older sibling by flicking them on the forehead). The higher pitched the sound, the crispier the apple will be. Lower pitched apples are softer and mealier inside.
@cranberrybobbie
AMAZING! I actually figured that(flicking the apples) out on my own, I can't remember how exactly, but when friends see me flicking my apples they always laugh at first, until I explain it! It works pretty much every time, I occasionally get a SLIGHTLY mealy apple, but rarely! :) Just takes a little practice to tell the difference between high and low pitched apples, since at first they sound pretty similar.
I am fed up with the apples in California. Last fall I had the best apples at the farmers market at Washington Sq. in Manhattan and still dream of them.
Apples get mealy when they are refrigerated, then brought to room temperature. I HATE it that almost all supermarkets now refrigerate their apples. It completely ruins them and turns all that sugar into starch. Yuck.
Ah, Matchbookhymnal, but if you keep them refrigerated, they're just fine. In fact, they'll keep nearly indefinitely like that.
Unless, of course, you've got a bad one in with them. And then, you know, fill in the rest of the proverb.
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