Glossary · Fruit
Culinary apple
Also written cooking apple. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
An apple grown for cooking, typically large, high in acid and low in tannin. Culinary fruit is used in cider chiefly to raise acidity and lower pH in a blend dominated by low-acid apples.
- Subject
- Fruit
- Also written
- cooking apple
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Fruit
Sharp
In the Long Ashton classification, a cider apple high in acid and low in tannin. Sharps supply freshness and lower the pH of a blend into a range where spoilage organisms are less comfortable.
Fruit
Cider apple
An apple cultivar selected for fermentation rather than for eating or cooking, valued for juice yield, sugar, tannin and acid rather than for texture or appearance.
Fruit
Dessert apple
An apple grown to be eaten fresh. In cider terms, dessert fruit contributes sugar, acid and aroma but almost no tannin, so ciders made from it are light and need blending or process character for structure.
Chemistry
Titratable acidity
The total concentration of titratable acid in a juice or cider, measured by neutralising a sample with alkali to an end point and expressed as an equivalent of malic acid in grams per litre.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
A Somerset Pomona: The Cider Apples of Somerset
Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001. ISBN 9781874336877 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library: Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001, ISBN 9781874336877. The author was Long Ashton’s cider pomologist, which is why this work is registered for Somerset cultivar identity at all — it is the nearest thing to a successor to the station’s own descriptions. No copy was opened. Not digitised in any open collection.
The New Cider Maker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers
Claude Jolicoeur, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013. ISBN 9781603584739 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against the Open Library union catalogue: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013, ISBN 9781603584739, one edition recorded. That establishes the citation points at a real book in a stated edition, which is what a citation needs and is all it establishes. No copy was opened and nothing is quoted from it. The book itself is in print and not digitised in any open collection; where CiderHQ needs a figure from this territory it uses an accessible research source instead and says so.