That’s no less true of fruit. The consumer has been conditioned to believe an apple looks a bit like a tennis ball in shape and size, blemish-free and with a shiny sheen. Heaven forbid should shoppers stumble across an Ashmead’s Kernel, with its rather lumpy, dull and misshapen form, often covered in russet – the apple world’s equivalent of acne. Yet under that skin is a bright yellow-white flesh with a delightful sharpness on the palate.

This is the problem with a vast number of varieties in Britain – people have no idea what they’re missing out on. ‘There’s Worcester, Melrose, Chegworth Beauty, Spartan,’ says Max. ‘Russet, with its brown-ish thick skin and tannic nutty flavour. Boskoop Rouge which is tart and fragrant, though not the prettiest, with four times the amount of vitamin C than Granny Smith. Blenheim Orange, which is more of a cooking apple, but people eat them as well. Gloucester, a dessert apple good for juicing…’

We could be here a while ­– there are some 2,000 varieties of apple growing in the UK, around a quarter of which are culinary apples. And Britain is the only country in the world growing them on any significant scale. Yes, just like the Bramley, the poster boy of the cooking apple due to its high acidic content, user friendliness, and collapsibility.

But even with its apparent ubiquity, the culinary side of the apple industry is ‘hanging on by its teeth’. Or so says Joan Morgan, co-author of The New Book of Apples. ‘We tend to be cooking less, not making apple tarts and crumbles and apple stews,’ she tells me. ‘Chefs that do use them tend to go for those with the best shape, because the nature of the English culinary apple is that it folds into a nice smooth purée when cooked – ideal when making apple sauce, but not for tarte aux pommes and other French dishes which rely on the shape of the apple being retained.’

Still, though on the precipice, there are remnants of a wider family of cooking apples about. Go hunting in the right place during early season at the end of July or early August, and you may come across Codlin, ‘which tends to need very little cooking,’ says Joan, ‘as they’re much less sharp,’ and Early Victoria, ‘which are refreshing and summery, and when baked rise up like a soufflé.’ Then comes early midseason in September, followed by midseason in October, when you might start looking out for varieties like, say, Golden Noble. ‘A gorgeous, big yellow apple, and the best autumn cooker,’ says Joan. ‘With a flavour of its own, it makes a beautiful apple tart.’

As good as they sound, unearthing these varieties might take a bit of legwork. Enviably, this was not a problem Victorians had. Before apples became as commercially and so widely available as they are now, it was considered a luxury product more or less confined to the orchards and the supper tables of the well-heeled. ‘There grew an enormous profusion of apples under the supervision of head gardeners of country estates, where affluent folks lived and maintained self-sufficient orchards,’ says Joan.

‘Culinary’ and ‘dessert’ apples were cultivated in their respective orchards. And it was the Victorians who separated them this way, as each estate taking great interest in breeding, selecting, and promoting the finest eating apple around. ‘The criteria for a culinary apple was that it should be large and could be cooked easily, but after cooking retained a good flavour,’ says Joan. ‘Some varieties would lose their acidity and go a bit flat in taste. That’s one of the attractions in Bramley, as it doesn’t matter how much sugar and spices the recipe asks for ­– the flavour will always come through.’

With the exception of Bramley, cookers are a lot harder to get your hands on now days. So difficult, in fact, that Joan says your best bet is to grow your own. ‘Though you could find some at farmers’ markets,’ she says. ‘And community orchards, such as those set up by The Urban Orchard Project. There are also lots of local fruit groups resurrecting varieties of their particular locality.’

I don’t know if you have any silver fruit bowls lying around, or regularly indulge in seven-course supper parties, but going back to the Victorian ways of delegating a little time and respect to the apple will inevitably help found a new appreciation towards this fruit. There’s a lot even an in-season Discovery or James Grieve can do to open the mind, if not instigate a conversation that the apple is, clearly, not the one-dimensional fruit we seem to think it is.