Harvest time for the apple, the fruit world’s ancient sex symbol, begins in late summer and extends into the heart of autumn. What makes the apple sexy? Perhaps associations with temptation and carnal pleasure in the Bible, like the comparison of a lover to an apple tree in the Song of Solomon, help frame the fruit of Malus pumila as an object of sexual desire. Certainly the importances of apples as symbols of beauty in Greek myth and as markers of wealth in Roman society also contribute to the fruit’s historical sexiness. However, in my opinion, the apple’s honeyed fragrance and intoxicatingly floral taste simply support its swollen sensuality, making it the most desirable fruit of fall.

Classified as a pome along with pears and quinces, an apple is actually the engorged end of a flower. According to Harold McGee’s seminal food science text, On Food and Cooking, most pomes contain anthocyanin and carotenoid pigments that lend them beautiful ruby and topaz colors. Additionally, apples and other pomes provide large doses of phenolic antioxidants, which some studies indicate neutralize harmful free radicals in the body. Apples also contain small amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, iron, and calcium.

McGee’s lengthy treatise on fruit points out that primary “applely” tastes derive from ethyl acetate, an esther. In the typical apple’s flesh one might detect spicy, winey, tart, honeyed, and buttery flavors, with most flowery or aromatic elements stemming from the skin. Oftentimes cursed with undesirable amounts of starch at harvest, apples fall into the group of climacteric fruits, capable of converting those starches into sugars after picking; still, most apples in the supermarket are already ready to eat.

My favorite apple varieties range from those that taste spectacular out of hand to those best cooked. Delicious, a varietal first grown by Jess Hiatt in 1872, is described by The Penguin Companion to Food as “sweet but insipid, lacking in acid.” Although generally a reliable source of information (and a major source for this article), The Penguin Companion’s author, Alan Davidson, probably bought Delicious apples in a supermarket and never enjoyed them freshly plucked from a tree. True, these apples taste sweet, but possess complex floral aromas that dissipate during cooking. Unfortunately for Columbia students, apple picking proves a difficult activity around 116^th street and Broadway. A better choice, McIntosh apples, work well raw or cooked, as the balance of malic acid to sugar is well preserved under heat. Finally, Northern Spy apples, popular in New York, contain higher than usual quantities of vitamin C and are even better tasting in their native clime, the Northeastern United States.

Luckily for Columbia students, great apple dishes abound in the Morningside Heights neighborhood. For example, a warm apple struddle (the menu’s spelling, not mine) at Smoke Jazz and Supper Club-Lounge contains perfectly textured pieces of apple, even though I, with my college student sized appetite, found the portion rather dainty. Also, the Samascott Orchards stand, occasionally located on the corner of 114^th and Broadway, features fresh cider and a wide selection apples from Kinderhook, New York.  I would not, however, recommend the apple pie at Tom’s Restaurant; while the filling contains ample cinnamon spiked apple slices, the chalky, hard crust makes the dish at best lackluster.

As fall foliage erupts and the streets darken before winter, look to the persistent presence of apples in pastries for comfort while the fruits of summer rapidly disappear. Even if eating an apple isn’t quite like sex, imagining the millennia of previous apple fetishizers might make the next slice of pie all the more delicious. Check out the following recipe for apple cake if you have excess fruit that you failed to eat immediately after purchase.

Sadie’s Apple Cake

Ingredients:

Cinnamon and Sugar mixed together (enough to sprinkle on top of cake)

6 Jonathan Apples (Peel and Slice)

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

1 stick non-salted butter

Instructions:

Preheat oven 325 degrees .

Grease small glass 8 x 8 x 2 inch pan.

To create the dough (All mixing can be done by hand or with a mixer):

1. Soften the butter a bit so it can be easily mixed with the sugar.

2. Mix the butter and sugar in a large bowl

3. Add eggs to butter and sugar mixture.

4. Add vanilla and baking powder.

5. Add flour to mixture slowly, a little bit at a time.

Take 1/2 of the dough from the bowl and cover the bottom of the greased glass pan with it.

Next, take apple slices and spread them to cover the dough you just placed on the bottom of the glass plan.

Sprinkle apples with cinnamon and sugar. You might need to make more cinnamon and sugar mixture for the final topping of the cake.

Take the remaining dough, breaking it into pieces and cover the apples with it. This should appear as a patchy coverage rather a single sheet.

Generously sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top.

Cook for approximate 40 minutes or until cake is bubbling and golden brown on top. Delicious served warm from the oven or at room temperature.

–Special thanks to The Penguin Companion to Food by Alan Davidson and On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee for providing the majority of the information in this article, and for this feature in the future.