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Like, I get comments from people telling me it's weird I always try to peel potatoes like I am trying to make the worlds longest 1-piece potato peel. To me it feels way for efficient and fun to continu down a potato in 1 peel, while circling around it, instead of randomly scraping a hundred different pieces of peel off and having to reintroduce the cutter knife to the potato for every piece.
The most effecient way is to NOT peel potatoes. Why would you ever want to peel them? Potato skin is yum and rich in nutrients, whereas the flesh is mostly carbs. By throwing away the skin, you're not only wasting nutrients, you're getting rid of the texture and fiber it adds.
Why would you ever want to peel them?
I used to eat the skins until my kidney stone went to the lab. No more skins or spinach for me. :-( Kidney stone pain is an amazingly-effective incentive for dietary change.
I was a bartender for a bit.
It's normal for coworkers to complain about picky/annoying guests.
A coworker came up to me:
Jfc guy said he wanted a lot of lemon with his Pepsi, I gave him 3, he said he wants like a whole lemon worth of slices wtf
Me: Was he... Old?
Yeah...?
Me: kidney stones. That mans probably had a few, and he's done with em. Give him a sidecar of fresh lemon juice (something we had on hand), you'll make his day.
What does lemon do to kidney stones?
My guess is it helps dissolve them?
A quick bit of research shows that citric acid prevents kidney stones from forming, actually.
Some recipes seek the smoothest consistency. Skin interferes.
If you aren't cooking that specifically, just wash the skin.
Do you mean there's something other than roasted and mashed?
Oh... How could I forget gnocchi?! That wondrous improvement on pasta
Mash with skin, hmmmmm.
It's delicious.
Given that the skin has up to 12 times the nutrients of the entire potato it covers I personally stopped peeling my potatoes in most situations. It also adds a great crispy texture when you're roasting or frying. With that said, you do you when peeling. If it's cathartic to peel it all in one piece go for it. Or you can cut the potato in half and simply use a knife to trim the skin off like a sweet potato.
That's not true. For a potato, about half the total fiber is found in the skin. No other nutrients are drastically reduced.
You should NOT do this with Potatoes. Their skin contains Solanine, which is a nightshade toxin.
Other veggies and fruits yes, but not potatoes. Other nightshades like Tomatoes and Pepper are way different.
Fresh or properly stored non "green" potatoes should be safe to eat with the skin, as the solanine content is usually below the threshold of 100mg per kg, as I understand it according to this Source. What I found interesting is that the Solanine apparently accumulates in frying oil (it starts breaking down at about 170Β°C according to Wikipedia) which might be troublesome since some places swap frying oil infrequently.
Hey OP, I haven't read through the entire thread yet but I have a couple of suggestions. Fancy cocktails are a hobby of mine and a high quality peeler is essential for pulling thin, delicate strands of citrus zest for garnishes. The OXO Good Grips Y Peeler is a fairly popular one. With the added benefit of being able to replace the blades when they go dull. They also make a swivel peeler (the one in your picture) if you prefer that. My personal favorite is the Viski y peeler.
There's also channel knives, they're made to specifically cut continuous long, thin strips of citrus zest so you may find those pretty fun to use on your potatoes. With a little practice, you could probably peel an entire potato without stopping once. Like peelers you have a couple of options. The Triangle knives are good. You would use them in a similar way to Y-peelers. I'm not sure what the form factor for these are called but they're used in a similar way to the peeler in your picture.
Lastly, if you'd like a very quick (efficient) way of peeling them, you could always use an apple peeler. I can guarantee those will peel anything quicker than you could do by hand. And they're kinda fun to play with too
And a tip: pull the potato, not the peeler. Use your had with the peeler as leverage, but keep it still and use your hand with the potato to move it through the blade.
Boy, Oxo has has a terrible website. Decline their tracking and it gets stuck "Processing request" while blocking the whole page. Accept and it's immediately usable.
The Y peelers or as they were called in the kitchen I worked in "the lady's shaver" are great because you can cut on the back and forward motion.
Carrots, potatoes, cucumber all peeled superfast by peeling back and forth instead of only one direction.
this is the quality dedicated response i'm looking for haha.
I've considered before getting something like the apple peeler, but my girlfriend was like no it's just a gimmick we don't really need it, it will just clutter up the kitchen or get forgotten about in a closet. Guess I know what I want for christmas!
Bucket of water with potatoes and a drill with a toilet brush for a drill bit.
That is some Tim the tool man Taylor stuff!
I wanted to shit on it but I'm actually quite impressed...
"most efficient" depends on what you're maximizing for
Speed?
Effort?
Potato wastage?
Yes.
I would agree that the tool you use has the most impact. I really like this one. For me it works way better than the one in your picture.
true, it impacts the technical options. When my last one broke, I looked for quite a long time to find exactly one like in my picture again. The head needs to jiggle about to follow the shape of the potato while peeling. Static peelers feel very weird to me.
The one in the photo jiggles too.
We have one of those. It's called "SparschΓ€ler" over here in Germany. I have no idea how to translate it but maybe "a thing that peels and saves as much of the veggie in the process" or savingspeeler?? Whatever, my point is: those little teeth are something else! I got them stuck in the skin of my fingers/hand so often, I got another one without the teeth. The one without teeth isn't as effective (especially when I peel carrots) and cuts more off the vegetables I peel. Feels smoother, though!
I don't think hands are good at peeling potatoes. Maybe if you sharpen your nails?
The skin flakes off really easily if you cook them first. No nails needed
It depends on what exactly you're looking for in "efficiency'.
When most people peel potatoes they're looking for a time efficiency.
In the one strip method there's a lot of turning the potato going on. And a lot of careful precision. If you've been doing the one strip for enough time you might be close to the million strokes peeling being time effective but for most people...
To be honest I don't really peel potatoes anymore The only dish I would peel them for would be scalloped.
Steel wool and a water bucket or running water
To go further... bucket full of potatos, stick a scrubbing brush on the end of a drill, then drill that water till all the peel flies off.
Sounds mental but I swear I saw a YT video of this once
I want to know more about the peeler in the photo. I've never seen anything like that.
German Amazon has it. It is not particularly special o'er 'ere.
In terms of ergonomics, I much prefer this one, though.
From experience in Restaurants: boil them first and usually you can peel them then by hand. Like ripping the skin of in two parts with each hand.
I don't normally peel my potatoes, but when I do, I use the peeler like I'm whittling a piece of wood.
But peeling oranges...I do the same thing you try to do with potatoes: I try to get the peel off in one single long spiraling piece.