Peeling apple without breaking

[ma_sha1]

My cousin used to show off his ability to peel apples without breaking the peeled skin, its one long string when done.

I could never do it, the best I’ve gotten was two strings. I don’t feel my petty or German paring knife are the best tool for this, he used pocket knife with skinny blade.

Can you do it?
What knife would you use for such task?

 

[Migraine]

I can do it with this knife with ease.

 

[stringer]

My cousin used to show off his ability to peel apples without breaking the peeled skin, its one long string when done.

I could never do it, the best I’ve gotten was two strings. I don’t feel my petty or German paring knife are the best tool for this, he used picked knife with skinny blade.

Can you do it?
What knife would you use for such task?

A cheap paring knife works pretty good. I would use a 150-180 suji shaped petty (so shorter height as opposed to a gyuto, santoku, or kiritsuke shaped petty). For this type of cut the ideal geometry is actually the opposite of most other knives. You are cutting in the other direction, toward yourself, so the ura (flat) needs to be on the opposite side. So if you had a little single bevel yanagiba shaped petty that would be pretty sweet. But if you are left handed then you would want a right handed version or vice versa. @Benuser likes to recommend a Robert Herder paring/peeling knife that is designed with this type of inverted geometry in mind.

 

[ma_sha1]

So if you had a little single bevel yanagiba shaped petty that would be pretty sweet.

@Benuser likes to recommend a Robert Herder paring/peeling knife that is designed with this type of inverted geometry in mind.

Some great ideas

I am using 3” paring knife already, no need for longer but single bevel sounds like it’ll work! I haven’t seen one but I wonder if I can grind down one of my regular paying knife?

I’ll look into the Rober Herder, thanks!

 

[WildBoar]

paring knife. Have used 150mm utilities as well. I can't say I've tried to do it in one continuous peel when I started, but I've been into some a bit and realized I was close so just decided to go for it.

p.s. your difficulties are probably not due to your paring knives... Chances are you are just getting too close to the surface at some points of the peeling operation, and the thin skin at that point breaks.

 

[Ultrafiche]

I can do it with this knife with ease.

Is there any point to using a knife to do it? I'm sure you could get proficient at this with a knife, but a peeler is already really fast and effective.

 

[demcav]

I’ll look into the Rober Herder, thanks!

I received a couple of Robert Herder (WindmuellenMesser) paring knives last week from Bernal Cutlery. They're available in both carbon and stainless with various wood handles. For resharpening, I chose carbon. Nice triangular profile on the 3 1/2" full-tang version, a bit reminiscent of the vintage Sabatier parers with the super-pointed tips. The less-expensive 3" half-tang version is lighter and a tad bit thinner at the spine, similar in profile to Vnox parer.

They also make a sheep's foot profile that I haven't tried.

 

[Helmore]

I’ll look into the Rober Herder, thanks!

I like those. My mom uses them for everything and has been doing so for 50 years now. Her mom used them before her, and it wouldn't surprise me if the generation before that did the same. (They've been around for ages.) If you use the carbon version to peel loads of potatoes, you likely won't even need to sharpen them, as this seems to wear on the knives in such a way that they tend to sharpen themselves. If you use one for 20 years to peel kilos of potatoes on a weekly basis, they tend to wear away such that the blade profile turns convex, but it will still be just as easy to peel a potato with it as it was when it came out of the box.

EDIT: This sort of "self-sharpening" like property doesn't quite hold up if used for other produce, so I think it has something to do with residual sand or something in the potato peels. A carbon steel blade is apparently just easy enough to sharpen, that this seems to be enough.

 

[stringer]

Is there any point to using a knife to do it? I'm sure you could get proficient at this with a knife, but a peeler is already really fast and effective.

I use those y peelers for potatoes and sweet potatoes.
I used a straight peeler for carrots and parsnips.
I have never tried to peel an apple with anything other than a small knife, even if I have to peel bushels of them. Not the prettiest, but you get the idea.





I prefer a gyuto for stuff like melon and squash.

 

[ma_sha1]

Nice video, that’s exactly how I do it, the knife is a little bigger than what i’d use. It’s Also exactly how I break the peel string, to get a single peel string of skin Is harder than it seems.

 

[stringer]

Nice video, that’s exactly how I do it, the knife is a little bigger than what i’d use. It’s Also exactly how I break the peel string, to get a single peel string of skin Is harder than it seems.

I think that I could do this task with any number of knives but I would probably pick a different apple. I used an old battered honey crisp straight from the fridge. If I wanted to improve my odds of success I would use a fresh specimen of a less crisp variety and peel it at room temperature. The places where the skin broke were either bruised or at the very end. In the first case the damaged skin wasn't strong enough to hold. At the end the crisp skin broke instead of folding as the turning spiraled toward the finish.

 

[big D]

Failed myself when in my distant youth however have seen it done a number of times with pocket knives along the lines of case, barlow, oldtimer etc. along with standard paring knives out of a block set. My few attempts were spurred by watching my brother do it with a wusthof paring knife, besides which I eat the peel anyway so it was a bit silly for me to do in the first place

For you, at 0:52 you can see the right side of the knife. In the rest you can see the left side of it as she peels, and again doesn't appear to be anything special. Things to observe, at 2:01 the skin tears as it passes over her fingers but does not break. 2:02-2:03 is where the trouble begins. Perhaps a slip or perhaps it is because the apple is not tilted enough. Also note how the stem gets in the way.


Then this well known gentleman you can see his approach and how definitely he tilts the apple as the blade nears the turn of the apple.


Finally for a bit of additional showman ship----


Now I want to give one another go when it is apple season and can get a real one.
D. < spent my summers down on the farm.

Edited to add: another day a dollar short. Bringer already posted a video while I was bouncing around the house a trying to re-find the coring one. Oh well....

 

[ma_sha1]

Thanks for the nice videos!

Many be I just need mire more practice? my paring knives are the same style as what the old gentlemen used in video #2.

 

[Ultrafiche]

I use those y peelers for potatoes and sweet potatoes.
I used a straight peeler for carrots and parsnips.
I have never tried to peel an apple with anything other than a small knife, even if I have to peel bushels of them. Not the prettiest, but you get the idea.





I prefer a gyuto for stuff like melon and squash.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing!

Now that I think about it, I never peel my apples in the first place, so I'm not even sure why I'm asking. Seems like a good skill to have, though...

 

[ma_sha1]

IMHO, it’s good to peel away the skin. The pesticides & **** accumulate in the skin, I don’t want to eat that. People say there’s more vitamins in the skin, but it’s not worth it.

 

[Ultrafiche]

IMHO, it’s good to peel away the skin. The pesticides & **** accumulate in the skin, I don’t want to eat that. People say there’s more vitamins in the skin, but it’s not worth it.

Hmmm.... that's a good point that I just haven't thought too much about in the past, but it's a good reminder. Who knows what's on the produce that we consume?

Out of curiosity, do you peel everything before cooking/eating it? Where do you draw the line?

 

[Helmore]

Who knows what's on the produce that we consume?

In the EU this is heavily regulated, to ensure that what's on there is harmless. The funny thing is, that the regulations are stricter for non-organic produce regarding pesticides and such, that the non-organic apple is quite likely to have a lower amount of chemicals than the organic apple and this difference can be quite significant. (Though never anywhere near enough to be cause for concern.) This is purely comparing apples from commercial farmers. Home grown apples usually don't have any pesticides at all of course.

 

[ma_sha1]

Out of curiosity, do you peel everything before cooking/eating it? Where do you draw the line?

.

I am on a mission to get rid of all toxic stuff in the kitchen. Most of the skins, Cucumber, potato, zucchini etc, maybe not tomato that’s hard to do when ripe.

All Non-stick pots & pans are gone, all plastic bowls are gone, all aluminum-core cookwares are gone (when coating get scratched, it exposes the aluminum core, toxic to the brain).

Just got rid of my Japanese rice cooker as well, which has aluminum bowl coated with Teflon, & an bare aluminum top cover. I replaced it with the most heathy rice cooker I could find, only available for CDM, China domestic market. Had to use a transformer to run it but it’s worth the hustle. It has a pure ceramic bowl and 304 stainless top plate. Feels so good to eat the rice knowing no toxic **** could leach into my food, only wish that I had embarked on the mission sooner.

 

[Unstoppabo]

I'll bust out a knife for much less than peeling an apple! i'm prob 50/50 on keeping the skin in one piece but find it's faster to cut into 1/8 slices and 'filet' the skin off each slice w/ knife low, parallel to board and just slicing through with a smooth slice as I rock the apple.

 

[ian]

So, I haven't peeled an apple in like months. But just to show you can also do it with a Y peeler, I made a video today. My inexperience is obvious at first, but I grow more confident as I proceed. You too can peel an apple with a Y peeler!

 

[ma_sha1]

Nice video, but I am not so excited to develop Y-peeler skills thou. I do use it for potato, & I peel them right into the trash can Without trying to make a long string.

Peeler skill is nice, but for some reason not as exciting as knife peeling to me.

 

[parbaked]

I've been using my Y peeler for everything lately...maybe I need to by a nice paring knife.

 

[DitmasPork]

 

[ma_sha1]

Great, maybe I just need a French maid next to operate that thing

 

[stringer]

View attachment 83435

These are a lifesaver if you're making pie or tarts. Core and peel at the same time

 

[DitmasPork]

These are a lifesaver if you're making pie or tarts. Core and peel at the same time

I've never tried one of those rotary peelers, but can imagine the efficiency of it. I'm a home cook, in a tiny kitchen, so it's way beyond me needs.

 

[ian]

Nice video, but I am not so excited to develop Y-peeler skills thou. I do use it for potato, & I peel them right into the trash can Without trying to make a long string.

Peeler skill is nice, but for some reason not as exciting as knife peeling to me.

I'll make a video next where I dice onions with my Y-peeler.

 

[erickso1]

I've never tried one of those rotary peelers, but can imagine the efficiency of it. I'm a home cook, in a tiny kitchen, so it's way beyond me needs.

We're a home cook to. We have one. I haven't seen it in years.

 

[ma_sha1]

Home kitchen often have limited space, no room for various specialty gadgets. I’ve tossed out some juicers, bread makers, & combined toster with pizza maker to save space. If I had such an apple peeler specialty tool, I am pretty sure it’d be tossed out by now.

 

[Dendrobatez]

View attachment 83435

This brings me back to the summer time when I was a kid. My grandfather (a baker and pastor) would pull this out and I'd be on apple duty, peeling/slicing what seemed like endless amounts of apples. We would make enough strudel for the entire family and his church.