Back To Basics Peel Away Apple and Potato Peeler

[thumbclaw]

This was my first year processing apples.  All of the apple sauce and apple butter recipes I found said to quarter apples and put everything (seeds and peels too!) into the pot, and later run it through a foodmill.  I don't have a food mill and I like my stuff chunky.  Peeling bushels and bushels wasn't going to work either.  I came across the Back To Basics Peel Away Apple and Potato Peeler for $19.95 at Farm and Fleet while I was hunting for canning supplies.

It is made in China, but none-the-less is a sturdy little piece.  The suction device sticks well to our faux marble counter-top.  I haven't had it slip yet this season.  There is a small handle which releases the suction.

Here is a sample apple:




It take about 15-20 seconds per apple and you're left with good slop or compost:



The core pops right off upon resetting the peeler.

Older, softer apples don't work super well-- as the peeler part gets stuck and the corer part keeps turning, causing weaker apples to break apart. Still this handy gadget has left me with a lot more time for what's really important--

[pamplemousse]

Thumbclaw, I got one of those this year, good gadget.  I wish the slicing tool was adjustable so you could make fatter chunks.  The slices are good for the dehydrator, but seemed a little thin for the canned apple slicer.

I saw a video on dehydrate2store.com, after washing the apples in soapy water & rinsing, she peeled, cored, and sliced them, put the slices in the dehydrator, AND THEN she dried the peelings.  The crispy-dried peelings were then ground up to become a tea ingredient.  Good "waste-not want-not".

[thumbclaw]

interesting, apple peel tea- I'll check that out.  Thanks!

[cygnus]

We also have these, and we love them!  They do "okay" for pie filling as long as you don't have to cook it long to can it. 

Thanks for the tip on drying the peels!  We actually keep our peels on because we don't mind them, and they add a lot of flavor, but on the ends there just isn't much "meat" under the slices, mostly just peel, and so we threw that part away after it came out of the dehydrator.  Next time we'll keep them and chop them up for tea! 

Another use for the peels and cores - if you have a Mehu-Liisa steam juicer, just throw them into that and juice them.  That's what we did with ours this year.  The juice was a bit "thin" on flavor right out of the juicer but we simmered it down some and then canned the concentrate. 

[Chesyre]

buy 100 of them and then buy your neighbors kids for a can of coffee post crash , voila your own little apple hell sweatshop 

[thumbclaw]

buy 100 of them and then buy your neighbors kids for a can of coffee post crash , voila your own little apple hell sweatshop 

wonder what i can get for the hard apple cider then....     

Another use for the peels and cores - if you have a Mehu-Liisa steam juicer, just throw them into that and juice them.  That's what we did with ours this year.  The juice was a bit "thin" on flavor right out of the juicer but we simmered it down some and then canned the concentrate. 

awesome idea!

[Katie]

I got one of these and they are also great for potatoes.  You can make hash browns with them.  I made a lot of hash browns with the potatoes from my garden that had late potato blight.  There were some that were getting brown in the center, but I managed to salvage them for the most part. 

For the potatoes, it's best to have potatoes that have a nice regular shape and are firm.  Once all my garden potatoes are gone (I still have the ones not subject to blight) I'll get some sweet potatoes and regular potatoes and try the hash brown route with them and will also try dehydrating them.  The dehydrate2store.com website covers hash browns.  Pretty neat.  I got a second dehydrator cheap from a garage sale, so I can go full steam when ready.

[justanouveaufarmer]

Here's a good place to buy one.  I got Four Ways To Core An Apple.

www.applesource.com/tools%20for%20cooks.html

[Dystopia]

Thank you  justanotherdfu, those look like useful kitchen tools