Let's talk about naked apples! You'll need to strip off those pretty skins for many a dish this fall and winter. How do you do it? Do you use a paring knife? Or one of those fancy peelers that rotates the apple like a rotisserie chicken? We've got our preferred method—see the photos, below—and we'd love to hear yours.
We like to use a vegetable peeler to skin our apples; it spares more flesh than a paring knife (we're always getting hasty and taking off too much apple with the peel when we use a knife), and it's fast and efficient. Especially if you pull it towards you rather than slashing away from your body. You'll have more control that way.
As we rarely have need for a whole, peeled apple, we like to cut ours into quarters before peeling. Then we pull the peeler horizontally across the top of the chunk, taking off a tiny strip (about 1/4-inch), just to give us a place for the peeler to "grab" when we start peeling downward.
Then we simply pull the peeler down vertically, taking off 1/2-inch strips as we go.
Once the chunk is peeled, we'll do the same horizontal move across the bottom to remove the final bit of peel.
So, that's what works for us. We find this easier than peeling a whole apple in one, long spiral, although that's a cool trick if you can do it.
What's your method?
And don't throw your apple peels away!
• 5 Good Uses for Your Apple Peels
• Are there Any Good Uses for Apple Peels?
Related: How Do You Slice an Apple?
(Top image: Irving Penn's "Peeled Apple," via Christies; bottom images: Elizabeth Passarella)
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I use a vegetable peeler to peel the apple in one long spiral (or a few smaller spirals :P). I generally only peel apples for pie or crisp, so I peel the whole apple. I can't imagine trying to use a paring knife, and after one attempt to use one of those apple peeling devices - my mom was gifted with one - I went straight back to the vegetable peeler.
I use a really really really sharp knife and peel the whole apple in a spiral (like the picture above). Then I cut the apple off the core (into four pieces). This may leave a little more apple in the compost, but is SO much less painful then doing it other ways.
I do what you do, Elizabeth, except that I keep the apple intact and peel from the stem to the bottom with a vegetable peeler.
For small quantities of apples where the finished appearance matters, I use a narrow, sharp paring knife to spiral-peel it, cut it in half, then make a twisting cut in each half with the tip of the knife to take the half-core out as a cone.
For recipes requiring lots of apples where the appearance doesn't matter much (for instance, if the apples will be sliced, chopped or mashed), the apple peeling machine can save quite a lot of time.
I had one of those old-fashioned peelers which cores it and cuts it into spirals. Total piece of junk, put it out on the street after one use. Wasted a lot of apple, got jammed most of the time, and didn't get all the peel off.
My knife skills are terrible, so I have one of those crank-action peelers that attaches to the counter edge. LOVE IT. Mine also slices and cores if I use the extra blade, which is fantastic when I'm making pie and need to get through tons of apples.
I will never use again a peeler like the one shown in the photos. flat peelers make the tiniest turnips to the biggest pie pumpkins so much easier and faster to peel.
If I'm peeling more than a single apple, I cut the ends off then put it on the counter and just whack down the sides with my peeler, flip and catch any missed bits on the other end. Super fast compared to spiral peeling (aside from looking cool to have a long peel, theres no point and it takes longer)
And I actually disagree with caseoftornadoes- I use a peeler like in the photo and find it easier than a flat peeler for apples. Carrots, I use flat. But for round things, I end up slipping more with a flat peeler than a side one.
I just bought one of the contraptions that peels and slices the apple. I thought it was a crazy waste of space unitasker until a coworker brought one to the office.
After using it once, I immediately ordered one and use it at least every day. Love it. (And you know what they say about an apple a day...)
Growing up we had a "pie day" every fall where we made apple pies all day, usually producing about 40-50 pies. That's a lot of apples!
We used a crank peeler that also cored and sliced the apples and it worked great... for the most part. We always got our pie day apples from a neighbour's tree so they weren't perfectly shaped like the ones you find at the store. Any apples that were really lopsided or very ripe had to be peeled by hand, but that usually wasn't too many and my mom is a wiz with a paring knife so she took care of that.
When I'm just peeling for one pie I use a flat peeler.
use a paring knife. learn some knife skills. You'll feel better about it.
It depends on what is at hand on how I'll peel my apple. A Tourne knife is my favorite way, though. The curved blade fits the contours of the apple and it's what I was taught to use in school. Although a standard veggie peeler is also good. And those peeling contraptions rip off too much flesh, but if you have gripping issues like arthritis they can be a blessing.
I think I might have picked up arielle's peeler from the street. Best invention ever, use it all the time, it cuts the prep time for pies and sauce into a fraction.
I use a vertical peeler like the one in the photo, and do it in one or two long spirals. It takes about 10-15 seconds. The method described above seems much more complicated and time consuming. I cut it after it is peeled.
My go-to method, which I believe has not yet been suggested by another commenter, is to first, always use a "Y" peeler (Thank you Alton Brown), the actual technique is to peel the top and bottom in a circular motion and then simply peel top to bottom vertically. Easy, efficient, with no waste (other than the peel, of course).
@mkgold, I agree. This seems overly complicated. One long spiral, less than 30 seconds' work.
Method doesn't matter. Peeler does. Best I've found: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=serrated+peeler&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=13470697322345303933&sa=X&ei=65vGTvmuDcqysAKtu4Ev&ved=0CFcQ8wIwAw#