Is there, really, any more iconic fruit when it comes to autumn time than the age-old, wonderfully nourishing, and splendidly healthy apple?
Pears, my second favourite fruit (raspberries take first place, if you're curious - though the fruit that I eat the very most of in a given year would have to be strawberries, which I also adore), come close for sure and indeed, the two often go hand-in-hand.
Yet it is the apple - be it tart and green, mellow and golden yellow, juicy and red, or sweet and garnet hued - that takes top billing and which is as tied to fall as harvest moon, pumpkins, crunchy jewel toned leaves, and the return of chilly nights.
Apples are an amazing fruit. They're rich in both antioxidants and fiber, and can provide a lasting sense of satiety - as well as being a truly delicious food. In addition, apples have been an integral part of our collective human history for millenniums now, having factored into the the mythology, religions, and legends of a good many cultures, spanning the ancient Norse and Greeks to the central role they play in the Christian bible as well.
{Apples, glorious apples! We've been enjoying them for countless generations now and continue to reach for this good-for-us food with gusto the whole year 'round, but have a particular passion for them, naturally, when fall arrives and they're at the peak of their growing perfection. Vintage image source.}
Few amongst us are without both personal memories and elements of a cultural identity that relates back to apples.
We have expressions aplenty that include this juicy round fruit (such as, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree", "As American as apple pie", and "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"), associate them heavily with education (including the classic practise of leaving the gift of an apple on a teacher's desk), and have been eating (and drinking - apple cider or Calvados, anyone?) them in countless recipes for many, many centuries now.
Apples are a fun, cheerful fruit and one that is tied heavily many fall time celebrations, including both Halloween and Thanksgiving (the Canadian version of which happens today this year). They're perfect "as is", and yet work equally in both sweet and savoury dishes, too.
Over the years I've shared several different vintage recipes that included apples (such as Rosy Apple Pie, Creamy Gala Apple, Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup; and Maple Syrup and Apple Bread Pudding topped with Sugared Apples) and thought that in celebration of the fact that autumn's return is a mere ten days away, I would roundup some of the most mouth watering, classic, cutting edge, and/or unique apple recipes I've ever encountered online.
Each of these dishes is a stellar treat that puts the season's abundance of apples - of which there are thousands of different varieties the world over - to good use.
Naturally, they can all be made at other times of the year, too, but as I'm a firm believer in eating, and cooking, with an emphasis on the very foods that each season presents us with, now seems like the ideal time to delve into not one, not ten, not thirty, not even fifty, but seventy-five flat out magnificent apple recipes that are ideal for fall.
{All photos are care of their respective sources, which can be reached by clicking on the recipe link above each image. Unlike vintage images which are often much more in the public domain and for which the reproduction and sharing of is more liberally tolerated, I fully understand that some food bloggers do not like to have their photos shared on other blogs, even when a link back to their site is provided. If such is the case and your photo appears here, please let me know by email and I'll happily take it down or credit it in a different way that you're happy with. Thank you!}
It's hard not to work up an appetite just reading through this selection of fifty fabulous apple recipes! Do any of them jump out at you in particular?
Aside from the age old classic that is caramel apples and all of the variations on such presented here, the Apple Pie Tacos and Crispy-Skin Duck with Chargrilled Apples in particular are really beckoning to me at the moment.
As apples have been heavily and heartily enjoyed (and grown) in many parts of the world for centuries now, they're actually one of the most frequent types of fruits that you'll encounter in vintage and antique cookbooks, with recipes for classics such as apple pie, apple sauce, apple muffins, apple crisps and buckles, and apple butter, to name but a few, stretching back for hundreds of years at this point.
{Two young ladies biting into my all-time favourite Halloween time treat, the classic caramel apple, during the 1940s. Image source.}
A true icon of the season and one of the most delicious things to ever grow on a tree, so long as you enjoy and can (from a medical standpoint) safely eat them, apples deserve a place not just on teachers' desks, but on all of our tables come the sublimely beautiful days of late summer and straight on through to the iciest months of winter.
Embrace apples, get creative with them, and let them shine for you and your family all throughout fall, when they're truly at their finest in western hemisphere and when no other fruit says autumn quite like this humble, satisfying offering from Mother Nature does.
*PS* Happiest Thanksgiving wishes to all of my fellow Canadians!
