Inside, the flesh has a green tint, is crisp, and is said to have a hint of the flavour of cinnamon.

[6] With keeping, they turn a deeper brown or maroon colour, with harder, more solid flesh.

[7] The Norfolk Biffin is also mentioned by Charles Dickens, first in A Christmas Carol and in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843), later in Dombey and Son (1846–1848)[8] and in Boots at the Holly-tree Inn (1858).

The first of these says: "Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow of oranges and lemons, and in the great compactness of their juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner".

[11] In Victorian London, there was a Christmas trade in biffins, supplied by Norwich bakers, who cooked the apples in their bread-ovens, weighed down with an iron plate to exclude air.

[11] The apple is now only rarely seen in English orchards, having been widely replaced by such varieties as the Cox's Orange Pippin.