I have used Rome (or Rome Beauty) apples since I discovered them by accident 40 years ago. They are not "wet" and hardly require any flour in the fruit pie to thicken the apple filling. They have a flavor that is a cross of apple and floral and tangy sweet. The baked apple is firm but soft. Often the flesh has dark pink or red patterns in it which will blush your pie or sauce pink. Romes bloom late, which make them perfect out here on the Idaho Prairie where late May or Early June frost kill all of the other fruit buds. They are the latest harvest apple (October), and tend to be big, round dark ruby or garnet red fruit that keep into March in a cool place in the garage. They are not much of an eating apple because they are grainy and dryish after the first month, but they still cook the same month after month of keeping... firm flavorful and beautiful. I first found them in the market in Hawaii and suspect they were from New Zealand. I planted them here, along with other apples, but only the Rome lived on this awful soil and they alone of all the trees produce fruit. I've noticed they are getting hard to find in the market but I go out to the big Apple ranch to get them in the years (like this one) that frost or weather gets even my Rome apples. My favorite apple of all time.

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