Traditional French Potato Peeler from Nogent

When I was in France last fall, I took a wonderful cooking class with Rosa Jackson, and during the class I was introduced to a new sort of peeler. This is a very simple peeler, but it worked so nicely that I made sure to leave France with one of my own!

This traditional peeler, said Rosa, is the sort you find in every French kitchen. Every chef she knows peels his vegetables with a peeler just like this.

It's constructed very simply, rather like a paring knife. There's no ergonomically designed handle or swiveling blade. There's one blade, with a pointed tip that comes in handy for digging out potato eyes. There is a one-sided peeler cut into the blade.

This peeler fits snugly in the hand, and it lets you keep a close hold on whatever you're peeling. It's rather different from most peelers I have used, but I really liked the way it felt. I use it often now for apples, pears, and potatoes.

These traditional peelers can be found in the USA at Conran.

• Nogent Potato Peeler, $6

Comments (3)

I grew up with this kind of peeler, and was surprised when my fiance didn't know what to do with it! I didn't know there were other kinds of peelers until I was 25!

That style of peeler is also great for making big, food-porn style shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano ( or any other hard cheese). They look and taste great!

I've used this kind of peeler - not a big fan. As someone living in a city apartment where space is always at a premium, I like my kitchen tools to be a multi-tasking as possible. This style of peeler is good for the types of hard, relatively round & thick skinned produce you could peel with a paring knife. For other produce, like carrots, parsnips, cucumbers, asparagus, etc, I've found them to work incredibly poorly.

Personally, I'd rather use the excellent OXO Good Grips i-Series Y-Peeler, which has the added advantage of having a replaceable blade. (The french style peeler above needs to be periodically resharpened, which can be a bear.)