Salt water beats lemon juice for cut apples

The easiest way to keep cut apples from browning in a lunch box is a quick soak in lightly salted water — it holds up longer than lemon juice and you won’t taste the salt.

Browning is just oxygen reacting with an enzyme in the fruit. Lemon juice works because acid slows that reaction, but salt water actually disables the enzyme, so the apple stays white for hours instead of minutes. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of salt into a cup of water, soak the slices for five minutes, pat them dry, and pack them. That’s it.

If you’d rather skip salt, a honey-water soak (two tablespoons honey in a cup of water) works almost as well and adds a little sweetness. Ascorbic acid powder mixed into water is the neutral-tasting version of lemon juice. And for a whole apple cut into wedges, the old rubber-band trick still works great: slice it, press it back together, wrap a rubber band around it, and bag it. The cut surfaces stay pressed tight, so barely any air touches them.

No one will taste the salt — that’s kind of the point.