I like Honey Crisp and Gala too. Love Yellow Delicious for apple sauce. Used to always

use Northern Spy for pies...but can't find them around here anymore. I'm not a big fan

of Granny Smith either...but, they can make a good pie. ;) Wow...now I am hungry for

a big piece of Apple Pie with a dollop of Vanilla Ice Cream! :)

McIntosh, Jonagold, Fuji, Gala and Honeycrisp are all great apples for cooking. Pies, crisps, applesauce, etc. Gravenstein is as well - maybe one of the best - but with almost no commercial market.

I thought about getting a Northern Spy tree in the Springtime. I think I didn't because it didn't come in a dwarf variety. I'm probably going to get a couple columnar apple trees next year.

We like pippin for cooking. Also for eating if you like an apple that is not too sweet. Most new apples are too sweet.

It's true I haven't seen them in awhile. Were they the ones that would have some red tint to the flesh? Can't you still get Rome Beauties at u-pick farms? I seem to recall they were available at the CT farms we visited in 2019.

Alas, no apple picking here in FL, and it's the wrong time of year anyway. I never much liked Rome Beauty, but only ever had them from a grocery store, I think.

I'll cook with whatever apples I have on hand, which is always Pink Lady, and occasionally Granny Smith. Pink Lady is my fave apple for fresh eating nowadays, and they cook up nicely too, IMO.

I recall when we first encountered Granny Smith apples in the 1970s - they were small and a bit russeted and much more tart/sweet than the sort of bland and perfectly smooth ones I find in stores now.

Which pippin In particular?

I do remember Rome Beauties. Can’t remember for sure, but my mom might have used them for baked apples.

I still prefer Granny Smiths for pies, tarts and crisps. I’ve tried combinations of apples, including Golden Delicious, McIntosh, Braeburn and Gala, but keep going back to GS. I like them because of their tartness and texture, but that's a personal preference. Adding the right amount of sweetness and spice(s) produces a nice balance for me. Never had any complaints.

floral, the full name of the only pippin I've known is Newtown Pippin. I know it's an old variety because this retiree learned to like them when still a small child. They were once more widely grown than now and were commonly seen in stores. No longer the case. Fortunately, as I mentioned in the earlier comment, there's a family orchard operation less than one hour away that grows them and even has Pick Yourself days at the beginning of the harvest time. Here's a photo, they're always green and almost always have the dark, rough crown at the top.

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I keep watching and hoping to see either Newtown or Orange Pippin, or Northern Spy at a good discount at Stark Brothers. I did just get a dwarf Stayman Winesap, which was my favorite from the local orchard where I grew up.

In the fall, each year, Meijer tends to have a super sale of a variety of Michigan grown apples, and Rome Beauties are almost always included. (ETA: now that I think about it, might be Red Rome which is different, although it is a sport of Rome Beauty.)

We were a tart apple pie family and looked forward to yellow transparent coming available in early summer. I think others that my mother would use included Lodi, Wealthy, and Pippin. I recently found an orchard about 20 miles away that grows Wealthy & Transparent, so yay! It's an early summer apple also.

The best apple in the world for sauce are Yellow Transparents, a very early apple--July as I remember. They don't keep at all but they make the most delicious, silky applesauce. Haven't seen one in many, many years.