Apples not so ripe

[bower]

My mom has a load of apples this season on a number of trees that grew from seed.
She made some fantastic applesauce last year from two trees in the lower garden, but when I tried eating one fresh, it wasn't much good.

Anyway, I was just out there this afternoon and the wind and rain had tossed some apples on the ground from two of these trees near the house. I picked up and brought a few home. One tree the fruit are all green with no blush, at least one of them is a paler green and looks like it might ripen yellow if it had time. (That doesn't surprise me, since the apple trees sprouted in my compost pile, and Golden Delicious was a favorite at the time). The other tree's apples are developing some red streaks and speckles, but the background color is a darker green, and probably ? not close to ripe. This is the first year that this tree produced anything, so they have yet to be tried. And of course, we have no idea when in the season we should expect them to be fully ripe, or if the season is even long enough for that....

What do you do with apples that aren't fully ripe? Can the unbruised ones be kept to ripen off the tree? Or can you cook and eat apples that aren't ripe?

[worth1]

There's no reason you can't cook and eat a unripe apple.
You'll just need extra sugar and cook them longer.

[Tormahto]

I'm literally sh cked.

I thought that you were an expert in just about anything.

[Sue_CT]

Found this:

https://pickyourown.org/apples-ripening ... m-line.php

[worth1]

I'm literally sh cked.

I thought that you were an expert in just about anything.

It's not what you know it's what you think other people might know.
Unripe apples contain a ton of pectin.

[bower]

Yeah it ent that I know much but am willing to learn just about anything.
Of course I went to google too, but would put a lot of confidence in the personal experience of anyone here.
And besides that, @Sue_CT found something I didn't, and has a different take on whether you can ripen off the tree or not, as well as this 'starch test' which none of my searches turned up. Thanks, Sue!
I found various versions of this list of uses:
https://www.ruralsprout.com/windfall-apple-uses/

And by the way, I cut one open to check the seed color: they are still white, so a good way from ripe.
I put the others in a paper bag, hoping that they would ripen a bit more. But perhaps I should go ahead and cook them instead. If I have the time to do that, I'll go gather up all the windfalls I can find and make it worth the time.
Also, if I have some lower pectin fruit to combine them with, it would be well worthwhile.
I do make dogberry jelly every year, and the classic 'dog and crab' jelly my aunt used to make is perfect sense - the dogs have very little pectin.
I think our wild blackberries are a bit on the low side too.

Meanwhile we now know that we should leave them on the tree just as long as possible until they really approach ripe, if possible.

I would love to have some apple in chunks that I can use for muffins, apple crisp etc. in the freezer... May have to experiment with poaching or 'frying' and see if I can get them to the right stage, or whether they will just go straight to sauce, which has fewer uses.

Anyone want to share a recipe of your use of apple bounty, please do!

[Uncle_Feist]

I start peeling apples as soon as they're big enough to peel easy.

[worth1]

Just peel and core and make apple butter.
The sky is the limit on what spices to use.
I would highly suggest allspice for one.

[Sue_CT]

Apple butter sounds awesome. I also had not known about the changing of seed color, so I thought that was interesting, too.