For carrots or cucumbers, I don't care which type.
For potatoes I can't use A, cause I just don't have fine control with that. With B/C/D I can use the thumb of the hand with the peeler to push the potato past the blade. That just doesn't work with A, and it just feels risky without that kind of control. Also A does not have a pointy tip with which to gouge out the potato's eyes.
You think and work like me. For me it is exactly that, the thumb gives a degree of control and it is just not possible to do that with A. Although the peeler pictured at A does have that loop thing on the side to remove eyes, but again there does not seem to be a sensible way to hold it to do that.
My wife has just found the peeler she actually favours, which I cannot use, because the handle design gets in the way of using my thumb.
I grew up with a C-type and could never understand why it was so f.cking hard for me to use until I realised that to peel in the direction I'd been taught meant I wasn't using the blade as I was left-handed. Getting the A-type was a revelation and it's all I'll use now.
That one pictured and the Brabantia ones I buy work both ways as they have two blades.
They may have changed or the ones my mum had may have been cheap ones but they definitely were not ambidextrous and I hated it
I believe you. I remember noticing single bladed ones in the likes of Woolworth's when I was quite young, probably junior school age, and thinking they weren't like the twin bladed one we used at home. (The sister and I being oppositely handed, maybe mum had that in mind when she bought it.) They would have been what Gfamily described as Yorkshire peelers.
Re: Ergonomics poll.
Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2020 5:32 pm
by Gfamily
As I am one of six children, we mostly used one of these for peeling potatoes.
The sides and base both have a very coarse abrasive surface, and a turbine rotates the base.
Hose attached to the kitchen tap, half a dozen potatoes popped in, and they'd mostly be done in 30 seconds, with all the 'scrapings' flushed away. Minimal use of the peeler to cope with the interior curves and jobs-a-good-one.
Re: Ergonomics poll.
Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2020 7:00 pm
by Boustrophedon
We had summat similar powered by the Kenwood Chef.
I grew up with a C-type and could never understand why it was so f.cking hard for me to use until I realised that to peel in the direction I'd been taught meant I wasn't using the blade as I was left-handed. Getting the A-type was a revelation and it's all I'll use now.
That one pictured and the Brabantia ones I buy work both ways as they have two blades.
They may have changed or the ones my mum had may have been cheap ones but they definitely were not ambidextrous and I hated it
I do remember the single sided ones, they had red wooden handles with string wrapping, like the plastic handled one pictured, is pretending to be.
As basementer says they were a Woolworths staple.
That one pictured and the Brabantia ones I buy work both ways as they have two blades.
They may have changed or the ones my mum had may have been cheap ones but they definitely were not ambidextrous and I hated it
I do remember the single sided ones, they had red wooden handles with string wrapping, like the plastic handled one pictured, is pretending to be.
As basementer says they were a Woolworths staple.
And a V profile rather than the U shape of the Lancashire peeler
I got in the habit of peeling carrots as Mrs Y insisted we peel non-organic ones to remove pesticide traces or whatever. Can't remember where she got that advice from.
Now the kids have flown I only peel them if they're a bit gnarly and it's easier to peel than wash them clean. Parsnips I still peel without really thinking about it. Spuds if for mash, otherwise meh. Shaving flakes of parmesan rather than grating if I'm trying to look swanky.
Dad's colleagues in the Min of Ag labs would do that, as OP pesticides were (are?) used to control carrot fly. We found that out when one came to dinner and did that with the carrots dad grew, in a garden that has never had pesticides as far as we're aware, and certainly not since the 1950s
Ok I'm going to ask...what are people's reasons for peeling veg, from a cost/benefit point of view?
I mean if I am preparing food for other people I might peel some stuff due to expectations, but apart from that?
Also going to assume these are vegetables that will be cooked.
Potatoes for mashing or if skin is very pocked and manky; squash, 'cos have you ever tried eating squash skin?; occasionally parsnips if the skin is tough; otherwise wash or scrub only.
I use (E) a Victorinox peeler, which is like (A), but angled at about 45 degrees. It is my preferred choice by a long way. My order of preference would be
Victorinox >> A > B >>>C >D Although if C is blunt, I far prefer a knife I can sharpen. It would depend also on the knife*.
*Some people are knife Philistines. I was officially unhappy to find someone cutting up vegetables with my prized bread-knife, which has the same scalloped blade as this Wusthof Grand Prix II Offset Handle Serrated Knife. It slices bread without producing masses of crumbs, has a beautiful curve to the blade, so you don't end up dragging the point over the cutting board, cuts nice slices (not wedges) and generally is a joy to use. I have no idea how it could be sharpened, so I'm not looking forward to the day it gets too blunt to use.
Oh yeah! Although I did vote A 'cos we use one of those as well - depends which comes out of the drawer first.
And entirely agree on the Knife Philistine bit: do not touch my armoury unless you are using the right knife for the job, you bastards!
Ok I'm going to ask...what are people's reasons for peeling veg, from a cost/benefit point of view?
I mean if I am preparing food for other people I might peel some stuff due to expectations, but apart from that?
Also going to assume these are vegetables that will be cooked.
Flavour and mouth feel, mostly. No matter how hard I scrub (unless I scrub enough that is the equivalent of peeling with more effort), I don't get all the soil off unless I peel, and I can taste the difference*, and I don't like chewing on grit, especially on stir-fried carrots. I'm obsessive about getting mushrooms clean too. Potatoes, I'm happy to boil in their skins. Some people habitually do that and de-skin them on their plates when they are served up. I just eat the lot.
There is also the water conservation aspect: when potable water is expensive, it is cheaper to peel than use a lot of water.
*Getting the soil and grit out of leeks for stir frying is a pain. Chop in half lengthways and separate the layers, then give a quick rinse. For some reason spring onions don't suffer from this to the same extent. Also (spoilered for TallPoppy)...
Spoiler:
While I fully understand that we all eat a peck of dirt before we die, some vegetables are sourced from areas where contamination with human faeces is a greater problem than in other areas, and I don't particularly want to get hit by human faeces-borne infections. I'm not talking about abroad necessarily: working conditions for harvesting labour are dire, and many workers find it convenient/necessary to defecate in the fields where they are working. So I'm careful with raw or lightly cooked vegetables.
Ok I'm going to ask...what are people's reasons for peeling veg, from a cost/benefit point of view?
I mean if I am preparing food for other people I might peel some stuff due to expectations, but apart from that?
Also going to assume these are vegetables that will be cooked.
Potatoes for mashing or if skin is very pocked and manky; squash, 'cos have yo1u ever tried eating squash skin?; occasionally parsnips if the skin is tough; otherwise wash or scrub only.
Some squash skins are fine to eat when roasted, for what it's worth.
As I am one of six children, we mostly used one of these for peeling potatoes.
The sides and base both have a very coarse abrasive surface, and a turbine rotates the base.
Hose attached to the kitchen tap, half a dozen potatoes popped in, and they'd mostly be done in 30 seconds, with all the 'scrapings' flushed away. Minimal use of the peeler to cope with the interior curves and jobs-a-good-one.
Snap, for when I was growing up, I'm one of seven children. Pretty sure my mother didn't have either the time nor the inclination to manually peel enough potatoes for family meals. When I was a child that machine was a thing of awe and fear. The noise it made!
As I am one of six children, we mostly used one of these for peeling potatoes.
The sides and base both have a very coarse abrasive surface, and a turbine rotates the base.
Hose attached to the kitchen tap, half a dozen potatoes popped in, and they'd mostly be done in 30 seconds, with all the 'scrapings' flushed away. Minimal use of the peeler to cope with the interior curves and jobs-a-good-one.
Snap, for when I was growing up, I'm one of seven children. Pretty sure my mother didn't have either the time nor the inclination to manually peel enough potatoes for family meals. When I was a child that machine was a thing of awe and fear. The noise it made!
Ok I'm going to ask...what are people's reasons for peeling veg, from a cost/benefit point of view?
I mean if I am preparing food for other people I might peel some stuff due to expectations, but apart from that?
Also going to assume these are vegetables that will be cooked.
Potatoes for mashing or if skin is very pocked and manky; squash, 'cos have yo1u ever tried eating squash skin?; occasionally parsnips if the skin is tough; otherwise wash or scrub only.
Some squash skins are fine to eat when roasted, for what it's worth.
Roasted Crown Prince squash was good for that.
Re: Ergonomics poll.
Posted: Sat Jan 25, 2020 1:33 am
by Boustrophedon
84231562_2672711352836612_7269898882023161856_n.jpg (41.91 KiB) Viewed 3298 times
