Before cooking apples became common, colonists mainly used apples to make cider.
European colonists initially found that North America lacked familiar, good-quality eating apples; native crabapples were generally small and sour. They planted European seeds and trees, but orchards took years to mature, and seedlings often produced fruit better suited to pressing than eating or baking.
Cider was practical because it preserved the harvest, was easier to produce than beer, and was often safer to drink than questionable water. In the colonies, “cider” commonly meant fermented hard cider, not today’s usual nonalcoholic apple juice. Apples could also be dried, stewed, turned into vinegar, or eventually baked into pies.
A common mix-up is assuming apple pie was immediately the main colonial use of apples. Apple pie recipes did exist in eighteenth-century America, but widespread pie-making depended on productive orchards and varieties selected for cooking quality. The cider tradition also led to applejack, made by concentrating or distilling cider.