Description
An improved sport of Cockpit, a highly esteemed Yorkshire apple of the 1800s. This has yellow-green medium sized fruit which are flushed with pink, with a sharp, soft, juicy flesh. Cooks to a sensational sweet puree, with some bite.
"We do not argue with Hogg when he says ... 'In Yorkshire, this is a favourite apple'. It arose in Yorkshire, recorded in 1831, and is found frequently in old farm orchards there; like the Burr Knot, almost everyone had one. Commonly called Yorkshire Cockpit. This apple obviously travelled south during the nineteenth century, being recorded in the Herefordshire Pomona in 1885. Interestingly, Bunyard overlooked it, cross-referring 'Yorkshire Cockpit, see Cockpit', then omitting to describe it; neither does it appear in any of the other later references. Perhaps this reflects the tendency for northern apples to be less well-flavoured in the south, and so less highly thought of?
It isn't always the loveliest of apples to look at, but it is distinctive, especially when the characteristic russet lines are well-developed; then the skin look almost like melon skin. The pink flush seen on the 2006 vintage, right, is not usual, but is more commonly seen on the sport, Improved Cockpit, (illus. p. 105), which is larger, sweeter, flushed and striped with red-pink and slightly later ripening. Both appear in the Backhouse Catalogue. The apple now known as Improved Cockpit first appeared there in a bracketed note: (we also have an improved version of Cockpit), then later, in 1910, as Cockpit Large ... 'a free bearer'.
Cockpit has a good brisk flavour that is retained when cooked, making a sharp purée with an excellent fruity flavour. An excellent pie apple, fares well in Treacle and Apple Tart, in Apple Fool with brambles, and is very good in a traditional steamed pudding; the Improved Cockpit, being bigger, is a good baking apple. Both Cockpit and Improved Cockpit are included in Hilary Wilson's lists of apples that do well at northern latitudes, and at altitudes above 900ft; found to be disease free. They can be grown as fans, cordons or espaliers." - © Lin Hawthorne - 'The Northern Pomona'
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