Harvest time has arrived in North Georgia’s many apple orchards. But for Salvation South magazine editor, Chuck Reece, who grew up in our state’s apple capital—Ellijay—the best apple of all requires waiting until the first two weeks of October. He’s here today with the story of that apple, plus a recipe.

 

TRANSCRIPT: 

Chuck Reece: My dear wife, Stacy, loves Southern summertime at its hottest, when temperatures are in the 90s and the humidity is, too. She says it feels like a warm hug.

Me? I favor the fall. I love it when autumn turns the hillsides into abstract paintings. Because I grew up in Ellijay, the Apple Capital of Georgia, I also prefer the fall because folks harvest apples then.

The picking begins in the middle of August. But the apple I love best doesn’t come off the trees until October. 

That apple is called the Winesap — specifically, the Stayman Winesap.

The Winesap was first documented in 1804, when a man named Samuel Coles in Moorestown, N.J., developed a cultivar he thought was perfect for making apple cider. Someone tried it and declared it tasted like, and I quote, “wine-sop.” 

Thus, the name.

In the mid-1800s, the Winesap traveled west with settlers. In Kansas, a horticulturist named Dr. Joseph Stayman experimented until he achieved what he thought was the perfect Winesap. In 1875, if I had been with Dr. Stayman in Kansas for the first harvest, my response would have been, “Yes, sir. That is the apple-y-est apple you could possibly hope for.” 

The Stayman Winesap is firm. It snaps when you bite it. I like that. But what I like most is the flavor: sweet and tart, in perfect balance. That combination of firmness and flavor suits any purposes. Great for eating. Great for making cider. Make a cobbler from it, and you will ascend into culinary heaven. 

We will put my Stayman Winesap Cobbler recipe on the Georgia Public Broadcasting website for you and, come the first weekly edition of Salvation South magazine in October, it will be on our homepage. 

But here are the basics: Drive to Ellijay, Ga., sometime in the first two weeks of October. Find an apple house. Buy at least half a peck of Stayman Winesaps. That’ll be about five or six pounds. You’ll need three pounds for your cobbler, and you can eat the rest. 

Back home, you will peel and dice them. Then mix them with lemon juice, vanilla extract, brown sugar, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, mace, and sea salt. You’ll cook all that in butter. You’ll make a batter out of white sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and whole milk. You’ll pour that batter into even more melted butter. Then you will put your cooked Winesaps on top of the butter and batter and then you bake.

Fall isn’t fall to me until I get my first taste of that. And I promise you it’s worth all the trouble. Come see us anytime at Salvation South.com.

 

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Chuck Reece’s Stayman Winesap Apple Cobbler

Prep Time: 45 min Cook Time: 50 min Total Time: One hour, 35 minutes

 

INGREDIENTS

Apple filling:

  • 4 tablespoons/56 grams unsalted butter (½ stick) for sautéing the apples
  • 3 pounds Stayman Winesap apples, peeled, cored and cut into ½-inch dice (about 6½ cups/1000 grams)
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
  • 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup/220 grams dark brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon mace
  • ¾ teaspoon kosher salt

 

Batter:

  • 1 cup/200 grams granulated sugar
  • 1 cup/120 grams all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • ¾ cup/6 ounces whole milk

 

To bake:

  • 4 oz/112 grams (1 stick) of unsalted butter

 

DIRECTIONS

Make the apple filling:

  • Put diced apples in large bowl. Add lemon juice, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mac, and salt and toss with your hands to combine.
  • Add butter to a Dutch oven or very large skillet over medium heat. When the butter is melted, add apple mixture. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the apples start to soften, 5 to 10 minutes.

Make the batter:

  • In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in whole milk until you have a smooth batter.

To bake:

  • Preheat oven to 350
  • Put stick of butter in bottom of glass or ceramic nine-by-thirteen-inch baking dish that is one-inch deep, or an eight-inch diameter circular baking dish that is two inches deep.
  • Place pan in oven and watch closely. Remove it from the oven as soon as the butter has melted.
  • Pour batter into bottom of pan, drizzling it around all parts of the pan, but DO NOT stir or smooth it out.
  • Drop dollops of apple filling on top of mix until all apples have been added to baking dish. Again, DO NOT stir to combine with batter and butter. When baked, the batter will rise and integrate itself into the batter and butter.
  • Bake 50 minutes or until batter has risen to the top in places and becomes golden brown.

To serve:

  • Let cool at least 10 minutes before eating. You may add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to each serving if you wish, but the cobbler is delicious by itself.

 

Salvation South editor Chuck Reece comments on Southern culture and values in a weekly segment that airs Wednesdays during Morning Edition and All Things Considered on GPB Radio. Salvation South Deluxe is a series of longer Salvation South episodes which tell deeper stories of the Southern experience through the unique voices that live it. You can also find them here at GPB.org/Salvation-South and wherever you get your podcasts.