How to Peel Almost Anything By Michael Sheridan

Free Article Home l Submit Article l Contact Us

How to Peel Almost Anything By Michael Sheridan

The great English cook Prue Leith once famously remarked “life's too short to stuff a mushroom”. I feel pretty much the same way about peeling a grape.

However there may come a time when you want to do such a thing and it’s handy to have a simple method standing by. Not that peeling a grape is all that difficult, just tedious. You simply do it.

The same cannot be said of such things as peaches, apricots and even small pickling onions. The trick in each case is to use hot water.

With just about all thin skinned fruit, including tomatoes, you simply make a cross shaped nick in the skin, put them in a bowl and cover them with a very hot water for about 30 seconds. This cooks the skin and makes it very easy to remove.

You can do the same thing with baby onions, but you may need to leave them in the water a bit longer. That’s not a problem because there is no real danger of cooking the onion owing to the toughness of the skin. That’s not the case with most soft fruit so be careful not to leave them in the water for too long.

Melons, pineapples, grapefruit etc

These require a different technique and one that involves using a knife. It follows, therefore, that the knife needs to be very sharp.

The technique in itself is very simple but does require a little practice.

Start by cutting the top and bottom off the fruit. Then the place it on a flat surface so that it is standing upright and using your favorite knife cut vertical slices of skin away, keeping the blade as close to the contour of the fruit as possible.

Using this method you will find it very easy, for example, to remove the segments from peeled fruit such as oranges and grapefruit. You simply slip a small bladed knife between the pieces of flesh and the membranes that separate them.

In this way you can quickly and easily prepare a fruit salad for example, a salsa or your favorite tomato sauce. In fact the possibilities are endless.

Speaking of tomatoes, once you have peeled them, you might as well go the whole hog and remove the seeds as well.

Why would you do this? Because the seeds are inedible anyway and the pulp they are in introduces a lot of water into anything they are added to. Anyway, who wants to get a tomato seed stuck in their teeth?

Did you know, by the way that tomato seeds are not only inedible, they are virtually indestructible? So much so that a number of coastal currents have been traced by tracking the progress of these little wonders once they escaped from the water treatment plant.

So why bother to eat something that neither you, the sewage plant, nor the sea can digest?

Vegetables in general

Why bother to peel them at all?

The main reason, I suppose, is for the sake of appearance. There is a tendency to believe that vegetables without their skins look better than those with their clothes on.

In the case of carrots, I would have to agree. The skin, especially in older carrots, tends to go a gray color when cooked. It also shrinks and distorts the shape of the vegetable.

But in most cases I can see no really good reason for going to all that trouble. Simply wash the vegetables thoroughly, using a small nail brush you keep for that purpose, and then cook them in any way you wish.

One added bonus for doing this is that you retain more of the nutrients of the vegetable, a large proportion of which are in the skin. Of course, if you prefer to add the vegetable skins to your compost heap, you will get nice fat, juicy, healthy worms instead!

No doubt the magpies (or whatever carnivorous birds you have in your area) will be very grateful.

Garlic

If you intend to eat the cloves either whole or as a paste, there is no need to peel them at all until after they are cooked, when the pulp will easily squeeze out of the skins like toothpaste from a tube.

Peeling a raw clove is just as easy, once you know how. I learnt this trick from a kitchen hand, by the way, whose main job was to clean cooking pots, scrub mussels and peel garlic!

Simply put the clove of garlic on to a flat surface and press down on it with your thumb. It will ‘give’ slightly and the paper-like skin will fall away in your hand.

Prawns

If you are an American (or Paul Hogan) you call these mighty wonders ‘shrimp’. If you are British, ‘shrimp’ will mean a tiny crustacean of the same species. There is no greater bond than the language which divides us.

Have you ever wondered how a restaurant manages to serve peeled prawns with the head still on? Like this, of course:

Hold the head in one hand and the tail in the other. Straighten the prawn out as much as you are able, push the head and tail firmly towards each other so that you are compressing the fish a bit like a concertina.

Pull apart and the shell should separate from the rest. Learn to laugh at your failures :)

Wash your fruit and vegetables

This is so important that I’m going to say it again: wash your fruit and vegetables.

Do this, even if you intend to peel them. If there is any contamination, either through chemicals or soil dwelling bacteria, now is the time to get rid of it. You really do not want to get it either on your hands or your chopping board.

And while I am on this subject, a favorite hobby horse of mine, be careful not to chop up your peeled fruit or vegetables on a surface where unwashed items have been kept. You risk cross contamination if you do and I promise you that your family and guests will not thank you for it.

You will find a lot more details about cross contamination and how to avoid it in my free ebook, “Hygiene In The Kitchen”.

Remember that chemical contamination has a cumulative effect which may take some time to reveal itself as the toxins build up. Why take the chance? Wash your fruit and vegetables before use.

And at least rinse your hands between handling unwashed veggies and any other kind of food. You’ll make a lot of enemies that way, but they’ll all be bacteria who never really thought that much of you in the first place!

Author Info:

Michael Sheridan is an acknowledged authority and published writer on cooking matters. His website at http://thecoolcook.com contains a wealth of information, hints, tips and recipes for busy home cooks. ?expert=Michael_Sheridan

30 Most Recent Articles :

A Disputed New Business:Virtual Property Exchange

In many ways, the in-game economy is similar to a real world economy - goods and services are traded to mutual advantage and are mediated in currencies(gold,platinum,credit,etc.). An online broker, who goes by the screen name Rolala, was not a fan of online games until his 15-year-old son be[ Read Article]

THE UNITED STATES, A Terrorist Nation

I love the United States of America, but I cannot tolerate the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. No I am not shouting at you, I am simply making a distinction, a difference that thirty-seven states of the union have noticed and moved to rectify. You see, AMERICA isn’t America anymore, nor does it in anyw[ Read Article]

Dollars and Sense

When I speak of the Federal Reserve and the fiat monetary system that controls our lives I feel as though my words are falling on deaf ears. I have the sense that the simplest conversations suggesting that change must be made invoke fear and condemnation from my fellow citizens. When will we tak[ Read Article]

Constitutionality

Is the 16th Amendment constitutional? Of course it is, the Supreme Court has made that as clear as it did the issue of slavery. But let us remember that it took the lives of more than 365,000 brave American men and the destruction of the Republic to wrest the matter from the courts and resolve the[ Read Article]

Five Secrets to Effective Pay-Per-Click Advertising

With so many companies swarming the World Wide Web with their products, how can you and your products and services stand out? Your ready answer would most likely be effective marketing. But how? How can you catch the eye of a surfer skimming carelessly through web pages? How can you keep the at[ Read Article]

How to Sell Bonds

If you want to make good money with banks, or any institution, Government and agency bonds are where it is at. Simply because all Government bonds and agencies are AAA rated, and banks can buy millions of dollars of any bond without incurring any credit risk. All banks own bonds of some sort, a[ Read Article]

Closing in the Car Business

The “P” Word. Closing is all about helping car customers make positive decisions. It is not about pressure or manipulation. Your customers need help overcoming the “P” word. Procrastination! Procrastination is natural when it comes to making a buying decision. Your customer is trying to avoid [ Read Article]

If You Build It They Will Come, or Will They?

All right, so you invested your time and energy to build your organization a great new web site, but you are not getting quite the results you were hoping for. Few customers are visiting or interacting with you and rarely do you get prospects to contact you through the site. So what can you do to [ Read Article]

Confessions of a Yoga Teacher

The following are questions that Yoga teachers still need to answer, despite overwhelming evidence that Yoga is ?the mother of all health maintenance systems.? Mainstream thought is finally catching up, with the progress Yoga is making, but it has taken 5,000 years for us to get this far. Serio[ Read Article]

Vertical Creep in Search Results :: Should Organic Optimizers be Concerned?

I thought for this week I’d give a summary of some of the more interesting Search Engine Strategies sessions which are currently going on in New York City. I was at SES as a speaker last year in New York and I have to say, there is a wealth of information there even if some of it is contradict[ Read Article]

How to build link popularity fast and free

We all knew that back link or link popularity is a big factor to get good position in any search engines. But building link popularity some times really hard if you don't know how to do it. One of the hardest problem for new webmasters is to get back link to their newly stablis[ Read Article]

Does Chiropractic Care Really Make Sense?

The Role of Chiropractic in Treatment Beyond the Resolution of Symptoms Do you have the same nagging injury that never seems to go away? Are you suffering needlessly with pain? Are you fed up with taking painkillers? Do you want to find out what is causing your pain? If your answer is ‘ye[ Read Article]

The Economic Implications of Buying Drugs Online

Although the Internet is fairly new (at least to the mainstream) online shopping has grown by leaps and bounds. Now you can buy almost anything you need, from food to fishing equipment, right through your computer. Of course, this has meant that commerce has been forced to adapt to the changing co[ Read Article]

Manning and Manning-Can Either Brother Win the Big One?

It was just over a year ago, after the Colts lost to the Pats in their post-season contest, that Boomer Esiason said on national television, "I think maybe Peyton (Manning) is this generation's Dan Marino." Esiason went on to state that Manning "is a great football player, but he's not going to get[ Read Article]

Branding, Branding, Branding - MSN fails to keep it Straight

Sometimes you see promotions come along and you wonder: did they just do that? The current MSN promotion called msnsearchandwin is a prime example of this. Not only do they use “black hat” or at least “questionable” tactics on the site, but the messaging is inconsistent. In this article [ Read Article]

The New MSN Search Interface :: A positive change or the antithesis of transformation?

Now, instead of wide blue bars there are sleek silver-grey bars. Also, the top bar where the search box is became narrower. To me this makes the page seem less “closed in” and more visually appealing. I now feel as if I can trust the results more because they have more room. I’ve also noti[ Read Article]

Malta Holidays

With Malta visitor numbers static in recent years and facing new competiton from former Eastern Bloc countries offering cheap holidays, the recent announcement by the Maltese government that negotiations were at an advanced stage with two low cost airlines has[ Read Article]

Drug Rehab Treatment Centers as an Experience, not a Punishment

Choosing a drug rehab treatment center is a decision that calls for both negative and positive emotions. Nobody wants addiction to overtake their life to the point that rehab is the necessary step. However, the decision to go to one is something to look forward to, as it is the decision to rebui[ Read Article]

Some ways to improve your king content

There are thousands of articles, books and forum posts which showed that content is king in search engine optimization (SEO). In this article, you can find some ways that can help you improve this king content for your web site. * Content for people first, not for search engines - Some webmaste[ Read Article]

Aerosmith Just Keeps On Rockin’

For over three decades, Aerosmith have been one of rock's most revered and popular bands, crafting classic songs full of raw guitar runs and intensely energetic vocals. The band first reached fame in the 1970’s with a string of hits including "Dream On," "Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way." During t[ Read Article]

Chicago Cubs Pitcher Mark Prior Re-signs

After many trips through the rumor mill, Mark Prior accepted the Chicago Cubs’ offer on January 27 to a one-year, $3.65 million contract. That is $900,000 more than the salary he would have earned under the contract he voided in November. Since Prior's definitive season in 2003 (18-6), he has cooled[ Read Article]

Social Networking - The Next Great Marketing Medium?

There has been a virtual explosion of social networking sites in the past couple of years. Even the big players like Google, Yahoo and MSN are getting into it. With so much interest in how social networks work, one begins to wonder if there is marketing potential within these social network[ Read Article]

How to choose paid directory for web site listing?

How to choose paid directory for web site listing? Search Engines are the major source of traffic for any website. High search engine ranking can boost number of your visitors and in turn leads to increase in sales. The best way to get top search engine placement is to improve link popularity [ Read Article]

Addiction Treatment Centers Using Experiential Therapies

Life is experience. Substance dependence overtakes a person’s ability to make her own decisions to experience life, and life is no longer actively participated in. Therefore, in overcoming addiction, it is vital to learn to re-experience life. This lesson helps a treatment center resident reint[ Read Article]

The DH: Making Life Tough for AL Pitchers

In 1973 Major League Baseball instituted three rules designed to lessen the power of pitchers and create more offense. One theory at work was that the game needed to be energized and that more hitting would create additional runs and excitement. Both the National and American Leagues lowered th[ Read Article]

Vacation on the Beach the Smart Way

Vacation on the Beach the Smart Way Almost everyone agrees; there is no more relaxing way to vacation than to take it to the beach. For the vacationer/traveler who hasn't considered a beach house rental before, they represent an affordable and fun family oriented alternative. There is an intell[ Read Article]

Malta Holidays and Hotels Buzzed by New Jets

The Rising Cost of Prescription Drugs

If you’re like many Americans, the rising cost of prescription drugs may be costing you your health. In particular, seniors living on a fixed income with no insurance are finding it difficult to pay for necessary prescriptions out-of-pocket, and as a result, may be failing to receive the treatment[ Read Article]

Who's Tops in Hockey and Who's Not

The National Hockey League needs to do more to encourage better coverage of the hockey games. With so many other sports realizing national coverage, the NHL is sometimes forgotten. However, this year, there's a race for the Stanley Cup, and only one is set to win it. But which team will that be? [ Read Article]

The Danger Of Rounding Up Your Debts

Rounding up your debts is one of the biggest dangers to your financial position. It's also one of the easiest ways for your debts to get out of control. This way of thinking is best summed up by the following comment; ‘I already owe $27500 so what’s another $500. It takes my debt to a nice round [ Read Article]

World Top Stories :

XML error: not well-formed (invalid token) at line 7