Green Apple

Firm, tart green apples. Sharper than the red sort and denser in the flesh, which makes them the cooking apple of the two.

They keep their shape in heat instead of collapsing, so they are what you want for a pie, a crumble, a tray baked alongside pork or chicken, or a chutney. Raw, that acidity is exactly the point in a salad with walnuts and cheese, or shredded into a slaw where a sweet apple would be lost.

Look for hard fruit with tight green skin and no yellowing — yellow means it is ripening towards sweetness and away from what you bought it for. Bruises show as brown patches under the skin.

Fridge. Green apples are the best keepers of the three and will go a month if they are cold and not bruised.

Once cut, a squeeze of lemon stops the browning for an hour or two.

Three to four weeks refrigerated.