Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

newengland.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 257 posts

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#111

Post by riffraff »

vanderZwan wrote: post #91
cdelsolar wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always thought tomatoes were pretty good and then I had tomatoes in Europe.

I guess that means you had them in a Mediterranean country, because elsewhere in Europe they still are rather bland in my (northern European) opinion

It's also seasonal, and depending on the provenance (local/imported).

I live in Hungary and tomatoes are crap for 10 months a year, when they're generally imported from abroad and are obviously picked up unripe.

Then during the summer you can buy tasteful tomatoes for a while, sourced locally.

In Italy they're better on average, but you can also find tasteless dutch ones in supermarkets (again, picked up unripe).

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#112

Post by leotaku »

koolba wrote: post #2

> “It turns out that a lot of the genes that coded for the flavor-producing compounds were on the same chromosomes as the genes for the yellow striped skin,” Traverso explains, “so as you favored the more consistently colored apples, you were essentially disfavoring the same genes that coded for great flavor. This is also why so many cultivars of tomato and cucumber taste like moist cardboard. Once you taste what the…

Somehow I don't seem to have the same experience as most people in this thread. Sure, homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers taste quite a bit better than what I usually buy at the supermarket, but it certainly isn't perfect vs. inedible.

Possible explanations I can think of:

1. My taste perception is just broken because I am relatively young and have been raised on low-quality produce.

2. My local supermarkets just happen to stock excellent vegetables (I live in Central Europe).

3. There are some extremely high-quality breeds of tomatoes/cucumbers that I have never eaten before.

4. Other people are simply more enthusiastic about vegetable quality and therefore their claims seem exaggerated to me.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#113

Post by whynotkeithberg »

I was a massive fan of red delicious as a kid... I remember I continued buying them up until about 5-6 years ago because I always remembered the incredible taste but it never seemed to match up with my memories. I read a similar article 5-6 years ago and that's when I finally stopped buying. Now I mostly buy Pink Lady or Honeycrisp. Although the new Cosmic Crisp apples are quite great too and they last forever in the fridge.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#114

Post by aix1 »

sliken wrote: post #50
koolba wrote: post #2

> “It turns out that a lot of the genes that coded for the flavor-producing compounds were on the same chromosomes as the genes for the yellow striped skin,” Traverso explains, “so as you favored the more consistently colored apples, you were essentially disfavoring the same genes that coded for great flavor. This is also why so many cultivars of tomato and cucumber taste like moist cardboard. Once you taste what the…

This is also why many AKC pure bred dogs have serious health problems. Turns of you select only on a simple metric like hair color, ear shape, of slope of the back, that you end up selecting for things that go against the very heart of what the breed was. So you lose characteristics that led to the breed in the first place.

That, and inbreeding

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/although-purebred... https://www.instituteofcaninebiology.org/blog/inbreeding-of-...

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#116

Post by riffraff »

dagw wrote: post #93
phkahler wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> San Marzanos are origin-protected in Italy What does that mean? Protected under what laws?

Protected under what laws? Protected under EU law. Only tomatoes of a specific type AND from the specific region can use the name "San Marzanos". Outside the EU I don't think there is anything stopping yoou from labling any random tomato as "San Marzano".

I may be wrong but I believe the canada-eu and eu-japan treaties also protect most denominations of origin (or rather, most by value rather than by specific items, but San Marzano should be included).

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#117

Post by philwelch »

phkahler wrote: post #88
jfengel wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Marzanos are origin-protected in Italy, so if you get Italian San Marzano's they're legally limited in ways that promote quality. Unfortunately, there is a large black market in mis-labeled San Marzanos, so it's not a full guarantee of quality. But it's something that they're at least working on, rather than just giving up.

>> San Marzanos are origin-protected in Italy What does that mean? Protected under what laws?

You know how "champagne" is technically only champagne if the grapes are from the Champagne region of France, and otherwise it's just sparkling wine? That's a legal designation in the EU.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#118

Post by asdff »

mcv wrote: post #71

As a kid, I was a fan of Golden Delicious, while others criticised it for being too mealy. That wasn't my experience, at least at first. Eventually I encountered increasingly mealy Golden "Delicious", and started favouring other apples. Even the cheapest apples here, like Elstar and Jonagold, are pretty good in comparison. I wonder if it's the fate of any breed to eventually be bred for looks instead of taste. If you…

This is interesting, because I think apple picking orchards and farmers markets have an advantage here over supermarkets and delivery services. For public orchards, the apples are bred for taste first and foremost. Everyone goes in expecting to see dusty apples, with many worms too, but its fine since that's how it is out in the countryside. Everyone is also eating apples constantly while out picking, even if encouraged not to its an open secret, since after you've tasted the honey you are going to end up with two huge bags of your favorite varieties at the end of the day. Farmers markets also do a lot of free samples, even in this pandemic. You can typically ask at a farmers market for a vendor to slice you a sample as well if you are curious, most of the time they just do it for you unprompted as you are browsing. People become regulars at farmers markets if the vendor has very high quality items. They are looking for freaky mutant looking heirloom stuff in a farmers market, not a perfect plastic looking apple for a good price.

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#119

Post by Spooky23 »

quantified wrote: post #65
Spooky23 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look for regional producers or farmers markets. I’m lucky to live in upstate NY with ready access to farm stands about 30 minutes away. Usually smaller producers make different choices in terms of variety.

The US Northeast has so many apples that don’t travel well and have so much flavor: Spenser, Macoun, Empire... on the West Coast they’re all lacrosse balls that taste OK to decent but mainly travel well.

Everyone complains about the northeast re: weather, etc. But there’s a ton of stuff like this that many of us who live here take for granted!

Re: Red delicious apples weren’t always horrible

#120

Post by dunham »

cudgy wrote: post #70
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly nobody under the age of 35 is aware that popcorn used to taste like corn. Not like modern ears of corn, which are bred mostly for sweetness; more like tortilla chips, whose corn is still (somehow) cultivated for corn flavor. Corny. [edit] … also I’m baffled by how, every time I “hold the tomatoes” on my burger or salad, someone will invariably say “don’t you like tomatoes?” and I have to go on this dumb rant a…

San marzanos are pretty good … oops I shouldn’t have said that … now the words out and the geneticists are working hard to screw them up too

There are some counterfeit San Marzano out there too. Out on the west coast, I've been pretty happy with Muir Glen tomatoes.
Post reply on HN