SKIN TEXTURE 



RAW APPLES 



1 1 <~ 



BAKED APPLES 



SCORE 



- 4 



^ v: 



^^^^™ Delicious 



^™ ^™ Golden Delicious 



-• — • * Jonathan 



••••••• Rome Beauty 



■»x^« Stayman 



■■■■ — Winesap* 



1 r 



Tender 



■• v^iv:-.. 



Mod. Tough 



— L. — 



U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



MONTHS 



* TESTED IN FIRST YEAR ONLY 



NEG. 5584-58(10) AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE 



Figure 9. — Skin texture of raw and baked apples before and after storage of 

 mature apples at 40° F., mean scores for 2 crop years combined. 



had the most tender skin when baked (score 4.2) and Delicious the 

 least tender (score 3.2, slightly to moderately tough). 



As expected, tenderness of skin in baked apples decreased with 

 increases in storage time of apples. The skin of all varieties of baked 

 apples was slightly to moderately tough after 7 months of storage. 

 Mature Winesap apples and some samples of both mature and 

 immature Delicious apples baked after storage for 7 months had skins 

 too tough for satisfactory scores. 



There was some indication from the scores that for most of the 

 varieties of apples, storage at 32° F. resulted in more tender skins in 

 baked apples than did storage at 40°. However, differences in score 

 were significant in the first year only. 



From correlations of the data, a coefficient of +0.65 indicates that 

 42 percent of the variation in scores for skin texture of these baked 

 apples could be attributed to scores for skin texture of the raw apples. 



Flesh texture of raw apples. — At harvest, mature apples of Delicious, 

 Golden Delicious, Jonathan, and Rome Beauty varieties were judged 

 firm and crisp in texture with average scores ranging from 4.4 to 4.9 

 with 5.0 as optimum firmness (fig. 10). Stayman apples scored 

 above 5.0 for flesh texture because they were more firm than opti- 

 mum, whereas Winesap apples scored below 5.0. All immature 

 apples were too firm for good eating quality before storage. 



Although texture of all apples developed mealiness with increase in 

 storage time, the mature apples were not too mealy to be acceptable 

 after as long as 5 months. Acceptable scores for flesh texture after 

 7 months were largely dependent on storage temperature. 



Storage temperature had a marked effect on the development of 

 mealiness in apples during storage. In general, all scores for flesh 



40 



