Make Bland Apples Taste Better With A Sprinkle Of This Everyday Staple

One of the greatest joys of late summer and early fall is that they neatly bookend the peak of apple season. Sure, grocery stores carry apples year-round, but there's nothing like a gorgeously crisp, sweet, tree-ripened apple to herald in the cooler months. Cider, pie, crisp, doughnuts — apples dominate them all with their sharp, floral sweetness. However, whether you're enjoying them in baked goods or eating them raw as a fiber-rich snack, all apples taste even more delicious coated in a tiny sprinkle of one of the most common seasonings in existence: salt.

You may already know that a dash of salt helps sweet flavors shine, but it's particularly effective when applied to apples, which vary widely in intensity for both flavor and sweetness. We seem to know instinctively that this is a winning combo, since we often pair them with salty accompaniments like cheese, peanut butter, and even salted caramel. You may have noticed apples' flavor intensifies when enjoyed alongside these foods, most likely because salt simultaneously softens bitterness and enhances the fruity aroma and flavor in the apples.

Reduced bitterness and enhanced aroma naturally intensifies apples' overall signature flavor, especially if you've purchased underripe apples or tart, green Granny Smiths. All it takes is the barest sprinkle of ordinary table salt on the apple to unlock that extra layer of apple-y flavor. Just be sure to season it right before eating, as salt also draws out moisture and can make your apple mealy if you let it sit.

Seasoning your apples this way may sound strange, but it makes more sense when you realize the benefit of adding salt to sweet foods like pastries or chocolate isn't about making them taste salty. In fact, if you can detect a distinctly salty flavor, it means you've used too much. Rather, you should only really notice the absence of salt if you forget to garnish one of your apple slices, similar to biting into a lackluster cookie and realizing you forgot that all-important ¼ teaspoon of crystalized sodium chloride.

When trying this flavor hack for the first time, it's a fun idea to choose several different apple varieties to see how the salt affects the flavor of each of them, such as tangy Granny Smith and Pink Lady along with sweeter Jazz and Honeycrisp. Use less salt than you think you'll need on slices of each, and taste with a glass of water to cleanse your palate. Taste them salted and unsalted, noting how it affects each type of apple.

You'll likely notice the tart apples are more nuanced in addition to being sweeter, while the sweet apples have a brighter overall flavor in addition to an uptick in sweetness. This is also good information to have when seasoning apples to make pies or crispy air fried apple chips, as you may want a touch more salt in a pie full of tart apples, and a bit less in baked goods containing mostly Honeycrisp.