Re Apples
Personally I always thought the more sour the apple the better pie it would make, unfortunately the old fashioned apples I remember as a child cant be found any longer, We had 4 Horse Apple trees in our yard when I was a kid, My Grandparents planted them in the late 20s, and those little green apples really made the best pie ever, I also remember Grandmother buying Limbertwig,and Jonathan apples that were good, no one knows what those are anymore, I use Golden Delicious ,or better yet Grimes Golden Delicious if I can find them, Grandmother also used a apple she called a Transparent, when cooked they stayed in pieces and were almost clear and were kind of chewey, she often just cooked those and boy were they good.