Apples in the Touraine Loire Valley

Apples are the most popular fruit in France, with each French person eating on average 16 kilos of apples annually (followed by 12 kg of bananas and 10 kg of oranges). The three most popular eating and culinary apple varieties in France are Golden Delicious, Granny Smith and Reine des Reinettes. In France there is no prejudice against apples that are not red, and sweet, not too acidic apples that retain their form when cooked are preferred.

Organic pasturised apple juice.

When people think of apples and France they normally bring to mind Brittany and Normandy. But these north-western provinces are principally growing cider apples, and not so much the sort you crunch into as a snack. The Loire Valley on the other hand has just the right climatic conditions for growing dessert and culinary apples and there are many commercial orchards here. Many apple orchards in the Loire Valley press, pasturise and bottle their own juice too, but there is no tradition of cider. The apples from the Loire Valley are eaten fresh, or cooked into tarts and purées.

Homegrown apples, from left Reinette grise du Canada, Reine des reinettes, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Melrose.

The supermarkets stock half a dozen widely popular varieties, but at the farmers markets there are dozens of varieties. The producer will happily tell you what the characteristics of each of the varieties are – sweet or sharp, crunchy or soft, juicy or dry. Each variety has a different use. Don’t be afraid to try new varieties – you will be in for a treat if you take a bite out of a Pilot, a Cybele, or a Chantcler, or have a spoonful of home cooked Reinette grise du Canada purée.

Apples and mushrooms foraged in the forest.

The old varieties of apples may not be so reliable commercially, but many people cultivate them in domestic gardens. An organisation called the Croqueurs de Pommes (‘the apple crunchers’) is on hand, with branches all over France, to educate the public about how to grow and graft apple trees. 

Pressing apples into juice at a village food fair.

One reason there are so many apple orchards is because in the first half of the 20th century wine making was not profitable. At the end of the 19th century, winemakers were desperate to solve the killer fungal disease brought by the phylloxera root aphid. Within decades production was back up to pre-War levels, due to the introduction of phylloxera resistant root stock. However, consumption was slowly declining, there was an ongoing labour shortage, and the wine being produced was mostly not very good. Thousands of vines were grubbed up in the Touraine Loire Valley, with government incentives for winemakers to change their production. The apple orchards are a legacy of that farming transition. 

Homegrown apples. Reine des reinettes on the left, Red Delicious on the right.

Favourite Locally Grown Varieties: 

 The Reinette grise du Canada is a large, ugly, malformed apple with typical yellowy green russet skin with light brown scales all over. It is a variety that originated in England around 1800, under the name Golden Russet, then was introduced in Normandy to become much more popular in France than it is in England. It keeps and cooks well, and is even nice for eating raw, so long as you peel them. This apple is very fruity and aromatic, with a good balance of sugar and acidity. It fluffs up a bit when cooked but retains its shape.

Homemade Tarte Tatin.

Reine des Reinettes is a soft sweet apple when eaten fresh, an old local Touraine Loire Valley variety, yellow, streaked with red when it gets exposure to the sun. It is widely regarded as indeed the queen of French cooking apples, favoured by many big name chefs. They go soft and wrinkly quite quickly in storage, so are mostly cooked.

An organic orchardist at a farmers market, with an old apple variety that he has been unable to identify.

Golden Delicious, an American variety known simply as Goldens in France, is ubiquitious, and being sweet and crisp, by far the most popular apple here. After the Second World War men returning to their family farms in the Loire Valley were actively encouraged by the government agronomists to plant Golden Delicious orchards. The climate in the Loire Valley suits the variety extremely well, and it is highly productive here. Outside of France they are greeted with scorn and derision because of their pallid unappetising appearance and their tendancy to go disgustingly floury if they are picked too early and cold stored, as is normal for supermarket supply chains. Fortunately, a fresh mature Golden Delicious is a completely different creature to one purchased in the supermarket.

New season local apples come onto the market in September, and are good quality until March.

Because apples have been grown in the Loire Valley for millenia, naturalised trees can also be found in the forests. Usually the fruit on these ‘wild’ trees isn’t very good for eating raw, but they can be great for making apple jelly.

Apple purée is a pantry ingredient in French kitchens. Most people keep a jar of it on hand to make simple desserts. Every supermarket sells family sized jars of it.

Tarte Tatin: The best known Loire Valley recipe using apples is Tarte Tatin. This popular dessert is the benchmark for culinary apples in French minds. Apples that pulp and/or are highly acidic are not popular. In France the supply of sugar has historically been disrupted and unreliable, so French cooks prefer not to rely on adding much sugar to desserts. Therefore, naturally sweet apples are more popular. For tarte tatin you also need apples that retain their shape when cooked, so varieties such as Reine de Reinette and Reinette grise du Canada would be the choice for making this and many other traditional French apple desserts.

There seems to be no question that the Tatin sisters created the recipe in the 1880s and it became the signature dish of their hotel in Lamotte-Beuvron in the Sologne (the area between Blois and Orléans). They called the dessert Tarte Solognote. It seems to have been the famous Parisien restaurant Maxim's who dubbed it Tarte Tatin in the 1930s.

The original version seems to have been made in a cast iron Dutch oven, in the same way as one makes damper, by putting the pot in the coals and covering the deep sided lid with coals too. The sisters used the still popular old Tourangelle apple variety Reine des Reinettes , and the apples were not peeled (I peel mine). The tart is traditionally served warm, unaccompanied by custard, cream or icecream. The original recipe contains no spices or anything other than apples, flour, butter and sugar (and that is how I make it).

Traditionally the tart is an upside down shortcake, which is made by putting a layer of apple chunks on the base of a dish with plenty of butter and sugar to form caramel. Then a simple pastry is laid over the top, the ensemble baked then turned out so that the caramelly apple layer is uppermost for serving. (French people look away now…) To be honest, if you are nervous about turning the hot tart, there is no real need to do so. Just cut and flip each portion as you place it in the serving bowls, or leave with the pastry on top. It will taste the same either way. 

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UPDATE -- RESPONSES TO COMMENTS

Carolyn -- yes, we drive past that orchard often. It's owned and run by the Croqueurs des pommes, the association I mentioned in the blog post. They've tended to move their activities down our way more since their President lives in a village near to us.

Pré de la Forge -- I'm going on what the guy who planted our orchard told me the tree was.  

Jean -- I think French people use apple compote as a quick and easy dessert.

chm -- Simon has never mentioned apple jam, so I assume he didn't encounter it in Korea.