Beefheart Apple

Malus atro-rubra - Calville Cœur de Bœuf Apple

A true pomological curiosity, the Calville Cœur de Bœuf apple fascinates as much by its spectacular appearance as by its strong character.

With a brownish-red, almost black color, covered with an azure bloom reminiscent of plums, this impressively sized apple owed its success in the 19th century not to its flesh, which was greenish and not very tasty raw, but to its exceptional qualities for compotes.

Prized in great kitchens, it perfectly illustrates an era when hundreds of fruit varieties were cultivated, each destined for a specific use.

This vigorous apple tree is distinguished by its robust branches and upright buds, almost black on the sun-exposed side, covered with an ashen down.

Its large, oval, and crinkled leaves measure 8 to 13 centimeters and display a beautiful green on the upper side, being whitish and slightly cottony on the underside.

The fruit itself is remarkable: 8 centimeters in diameter, it tapers distinctly towards the eye, located at the bottom of a cavity raised by prominent ribs that form five elevations, giving it a characteristic pentagonal shape.

Its thick, hard skin, a shiny blackish-brown-red once the bloom is wiped off, is dotted with a few yellow specks.

The greenish flesh, firm without being crisp, reveals a somewhat coarse texture and a slightly acidic, unpronounced flavor. Storing until March, this beautiful apple was particularly valued in pantries for the preparation of excellent compotes.

This plate is extracted from the Traité des Arbres Fruitiers by Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin, a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference in 19th-century naturalistic illustration.

It combines the rigor of scientific drawing with a rare artistic sensibility, characteristic of the great plates from the golden age of illustrated botany.