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Honestly the first time he had seen the reports of allergic reactions to apples he had to pause. Was that really a thing? Could someone have really not known? Pat knew just how many things had apple juice or puree in them, it was actually really common in most fruit juices. That and pear juice for some reason. So when he went out on one of the calls for the allergic reaction there were quite a few questions asked. The poor kid was certain that all they had was the apple, the mom was furious that someone tampered with the fruit, while the dad just looked bemused and a little overwhelmed. The kid was ok but Pat was pretty sure that the kid wouldn’t be touching another apple any time soon, much to their mother’s chagrin.

And of course the internet found out about these sour apples and it didn’t take long before the challenges started. Everything from just eating them to cooking with them and giving it to an unsuspecting family member quickly cropped up on YouTube, Instagram, and Tik Tok. His coworkers even got into it, once it was made abundantly clear that the puckering fruit was not harmful, by making those surprise sour cookies that seemed to be all the rage. Personally Pat wanted to give the bitter challenge a pass, especially since the last time his clowns that he called coworkers burned the hell out of the ‘russian roulette’ style cake they tried to make. Sometimes he felt like he was back in college and dealing with adolescent boys.

After the third time of turning down a ‘can you keep a straight face’ challenge from the guys at the firehouse, and the subsequent calls of ‘chicken’ and other general good natured ribbing, Pat caved. Except he wasn’t going to eat any of their horrid food, honestly how these men survived on their cooking he did not know. So he went home and started to google.

The obvious desserts were off the table but that didn’t mean that there weren’t other types of dishes he could make. Chicken and pork seemed like the common denominator in the savory category. There was even a Fruited Curry Chicken Salad he could do, that particular receipt went on the ‘got to try’ list. But there was this one dish that really stood out for Pat, something that he could make and he suspected his coworkers would love… if it wasn’t so tart that is. If he cooked it right of course.

It wasn’t hard to get the majority of the ingredients, the sour apples were the hardest to source, but finally he was ready. And even better since it was his night to cook at the firehouse! He prepped everything beforehand and quickly tossed it all together once he got to work, playfully warning people away from the crockpot when they came in to figure out what the tantalizing smell was. It did smell fantastic, even knowing what was in it made Pat’s mouth water.

Dinner finally came around and he pulled out the crockpot and started to dish up the Pork and Sauerkraut with Apples that he had made, as well as the the second pot of Apple-Tarragon Turkey Sloppy Joes since he didn’t figure the pork dish would go far enough. Soon everyone was digging in and it only took a bite or two before puckering of lips and screwed up faces were spreading throughout the table. Pat just grinned even as he passed out the ‘water’ that he had been infusing the apples in for the past day. That brought on more spluttering from the crowd.

After some general chaos and overall joking, plus some plain grilled pork chops and normal canned sloppy joe mix, dinner was done and quite a few of the guys actually prefer the ‘sour’ food over the normal stuff. Pat happily shared the recipes that he had found but reminded them that not everyone had cast iron stomachs like they did. Overall dinner was a hit and the next time the sour apples were brought up Pat just had to ask if he should try out one of the other savory apple dishes he had found before a chorus of ‘nooooo’s were heard.

Shame really because there were some really delicious sounding chicken dishes on that one site.