Sauce apples are those apples deemed by cooks and home canners to be varieties which perform well when used to make applesauce.
You can boil almost any apple down into a sauce, if you cook it long enough. However, the best sauce apples are those that have a soft enough flesh to break down with only little cooking, meaning that less taste is lost.
A Charles Ross Apple is a good example of an apple that won’t lose its shape easily to break down into sauce; this makes the Charles Ross apple a better cooking apple for pies, where you want the shape maintained.
Apples that are good for making sauce with are also good for making apple butter with.
Types of sauce apples
Alexander Apples
Alexander are large apples, with smooth, shiny, thick tough skin.
The skin is green with red stripes and flushes on the shaded side.
Inside, the apples have crisp, coarse, firm but tender yellowish-white flesh that is juicy with a mildly tart...
Almata Apples
Almata are small to medium-sized apples with pale red skin with a grey flush, and red flesh.
The taste is quite sour, though it will sweeten enough when fully ripe for some people's tastes to eat fresh.
Generally, though, Almata Apples are thought...
Arkansas Black Apple
A deep red fragrant apple, with one side a red so deep it's almost purple or black. The yellow flesh is firm and crisp.
Cooking Tips
Good for cider and cooking, include pies and baking. Makes good applesauce. You can also eat it fresh, if you like...
Astrachan Apples
Astrachan Apples are small to medium-sized apples with a pale yellow skin with rosy red blushes and white speckles. The skin is thin and tender.
The Astrachan Apple has a white flesh that develops red streaks as it ripens. It is crisp, finely-textured,...
Ballyfatten Apple
A large, round cooking apple with firm white flesh that is dry and slightly tart.
Popular in Northern Ireland, especially Londonderry.
Cooking Tips
Good for applesauce, cooks to a smooth purée.
Storage Hints
Sweetens up in storage.
History ...
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...
Blenheim Orange Apple
A large apple that is somewhat flattened looking. It has dull, washed-looking skin that is greenish-yellow with reddish-orange stripes.
The flesh is creamy-white, with a coarse, crumbly texture, and is moderately juicy.
The tree needs to be several...
Braeburn Apple
Braeburn Apples
© Kerstin Riemer / pixabay.com / 2016 / CC0 1.0
A Braeburn is a red striped apple with a red blush on top of yellow.
The juicy yellow flesh is very crisp, with a flavour that is sweet and tart at the same time. A very fragrant ...
Crimson Beauty Apples
Crimson Beauty Apples
© Denzil Green
Crimson Beauty Apples have skin tinged with red streaks when fully ripe.
Some people think they occasionally detect a hint of raspberry in the tart flavour.
The apples ripen late July, early August.
Cooking ...
Early Red Bird
Early Red Bird is a medium-sized apple with red skin.
The flesh inside is white, with red veins on the side that gets the most sun.
It ripens very early, in June or July.
Cooking Tips
Good for eating fresh. Also is good for frying and makes...
Elstar Apple
Elstar Apple
© Takeaway / wikimedia / 2015 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Elstar is an large, fragrant all-purpose apple for eating fresh or for cooking with.
The skin is yellow, covered by orange-red blushes. The flesh is a firm, yellowish white, crunchy ...
Fallawater Apples
Fallawater are large to very-large sized apples.
They have dull green skin turning greenish yellow when fully ripe, with bronze and red flushes.
Inside, they have greenish-white, tender, coarse, juicy flesh, with a mild, slightly sweet flavour.
The...
Freedom Apples
Freedom are medium to large-sized apples.
They have yellow skin almost entirely covered by red.
Inside, the cream-coloured flesh is crisp, firm and juicy, with good flavour and a balance of tart with some sweet.
The apples ripen mid to late...
Golden Delicious Apples
Golden Delicious Apples
© Denzil Green
Golden Delicious Apples are not related to Red Delicious at all, except that both happen to be apples.
A Golden Delicious Apple has a similar shape to Red Delicious, but a milder taste. The apples are ...
Golden Noble Apples
Golden Noble Apples are round, with smooth pale yellow skin with red and occasionally green dots or flecks.
Inside, they have crisp, firm white juicy flesh with a sharp, fruity flavour.
The apples are ready to harvest in September.
Cooking Tips...
Grenadier Apples
Grenadier are medium to large-sized apples with light-green skin that becomes yellowish as they become ready to pick.
The flesh is off-white, sometimes with a tinge of green. It is crisp, sweet, and somewhat juicy.
The tree is a heavy bearer....
Parmer Apples
Parmer are small to medium-sized, conical apples.
They have dark-yellow skin with patches of russetting.
Inside, they have finely-textured, crisp dark yellow flesh, with a somewhat tart flavour.
The fruit ripens in late July / early August...
Rusty Coat Apples
Rusty Coat are small to medium-sized apples.
They have greenish-yellow skin with pale red stripes, all covered in heavy, coarse russetting.
Inside, they have crisp, tender, somewhat dry flesh with a sweet taste and overall good flavour.
The...
Sayaka Apples
Sayaka are large-sized apples with bright reddish-pink and orangish skin.
They have crisp, very juicy flesh with a tart and sweet taste.
Cooking Tips
Good for apple sauce and pies.
History Notes
Sayaka Apples were developed in Japan from a...
Wagener Apple
Wagener Apples have thin, smooth, glossy skin that is a pale with red and pink blushes.
Inside, the yellowish-white flesh is fine-grained, tender, crisp and juicy.
The apple is round, slightly flattened and medium to large-sized.
Cooking Tips...
Winter Red Flesh Apples
Winter Red Flesh are medium-sized apples with red skin and red flesh.
The tree has reddish leaves and blooms with purple blossoms in the spring. It is very hardy.
The fruit ripens mid-October.
Cooking Tips
Good for sauce, jelly.
History Notes...