• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

CooksInfo

  • Home
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Recipes
  • Food Calendar
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar
×
Home » Fruit » Hard Fruit » Apples » Sauce Apples » Ben Davis Apples

Ben Davis Apples

Ben Davis are round, medium to large-sized apples with shiny, bright yellow, thick, tough waxy skin with dark, bright-red flushes.

The white flesh inside is dry, coarsely-textured and mealy.

It is very popular in the American south, though detractors say the apple is dry and tasteless. Some call it “cotton with red skin wrapped around it.”

The tree is a heavy producer.

Ben Davis Apples stand up well to shipping, and make good applesauce.

History Notes

Ben Davis Apples originated in the southern US, possibly Kentucky, Tennessee, or Virginia before the American Civil War. Some though give it a Maine origin before that — on the farm of a Benjamin Davis of Minot, Maine, around 1840.

The apple used to be prized simply because it shipped without bruising, and stored for a long time.

Literature & Lore

“In his revised edition (1860), Downing quotes a Kentucky fruit grower as saying that Ben Davis ‘is one of the finest apples he ever met with,’ and Downing describes it as ‘tender, juicy, with a mild sub-acid very pleasant flavor.’ Yet Ben Davis’ quality is more often than not widely disparaged. My belief is that the difference in view depends upon where it is grown. In the warmer apple-growing states, such as Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, etc., it succeeds while it fails in New England and other colder climates.” — Robert A. Nitschke in Melrose, R.B. Fruit Varieties Mostly at ‘Melrose Folly’. 1998-05-05. Page 39.

Other names

AKA: Baltimore Pippin Apples, Baltimore Red Apples, Baltimore Red Streak Apples, Carolina Red Streak Apples, Funkhouser Apples, Kentucky Pippin Apples, Kentucky Red Streak Apples, New York Pippin Apples, Victoria Pippin Apples, Victoria Red Apples

This page first published: May 5, 2005 · Updated: Oct 4, 2020.

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · Information on this site is Copyright © 2022· Feel free to cite correctly, but copying whole pages for your website is content theft and will be DCMA'd.

Tagged With: American South Food

Primary Sidebar

Search

    Today is

  • Vinalia rustica
    Grapes
  • Potato Day
    Harvesting potatoes
  • Soft Ice Cream Day
  • Charles E. Hires Birthday

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • About this site
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright enforced!
  • Terms & Conditions

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Site

  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · The text on this site is © Copyright.