Emma Miller
Peeling potatoes is a rather long and monotonous process that neither professional cooks nor novice housewives like. Some people simply do not have time to peel potatoes, while others find it too boring and monotonous.
Professional chefs are convinced that if you choose the right tools, peeling potatoes will take much less time.
How to choose a knife for peeling potatoes
If you don’t know how to quickly peel potatoes with a knife, start with the main thing – pick the perfect tool. A potato peeler should be small and lightweight. The ideal knife handle fits completely in your palm – if it’s slippery or uncomfortable, not only will you not peel potatoes quickly, but you risk injury.
The blade of the knife must be perfectly sharpened. Unlike meat-cutting knives, a potato peeler should be almost weightless but sharp. Peeling potatoes is a process that takes 15-20 minutes, so working with a heavy knife will be uncomfortable and your hand will quickly get tired.
How to peel potatoes without a knife – the easiest ways
If you have young potatoes, you can easily do without a knife. It is enough to rub the raw potatoes with salt. The salt will remove the skin from the vegetable. Then the potatoes will need to be washed. However, note that this method will not work with old potatoes.
You can also peel young potatoes without a knife, using a hard dishwashing sponge or a metal sponge. The main condition for this method is that the potatoes must be young. It is better to rub the potatoes with a sponge under a stream of cold water, so the potatoes will be cleaned faster.
How to quickly peel small potatoes – a tiphack
To peel small potatoes, you need to put them in a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes. After that, the potato should be taken out of the hot water and transferred to a container with cold water. Because of the temperature difference, the peel on the potato will separate in the same way as it does on tomatoes after you put them in boiling water.
Note, however, that this method works only with young potatoes. You will not be able to peel old potatoes in this way. For an old vegetable, you will have to either use a knife or pick up a recipe for which the potatoes can not be peeled.
How to peel potatoes with a vegetable peeler – the most convenient tool
If you still have not decided for yourself what is the best way to peel potatoes – buy a vegetable peeler knife. Such a device is a handle and a blade fixed to it with a slit. It is in this slot that the peel is inserted while peeling potatoes, and it is the thickness of this slot will depend on the thickness of the skin that is removed from the vegetable.
If you do not know how to peel potatoes with a vegetable peeler, just take a potato in one hand and a knife in the other and proceed. Many chefs recommend peeling potatoes under a thin stream of cold water. First, this way you immediately wash excess starch out of the vegetable, and secondly, this way the potato will be perfectly clean, and you will immediately see all the skin you managed to remove.
The good thing about this method is that, unlike a regular knife, vegetable peelers are practically safe. It is quite difficult to hurt yourself with a vegetable peeler knife because the blade is “recessed” in the handle and if used correctly, it has no direct contact with the human hand. In addition, such a knife peels potatoes much faster than a regular one.
How to peel potatoes in the jacket – a tiphack
A jacket potato is a potato boiled in the peel. If the vegetable is boiled until cooked, the skin comes off very easily. You can remove the skin from boiled potatoes with a knife, but note that boiled potatoes should not be peeled with a knife, but only lightly scratch, picking up the thin skin.
You can also peel jacket potatoes with a metal sponge or spoon.
Another option for a quick peel is to remove the skin by hand. To do this, make a small incision in the circumference of the potato before boiling it. When the potato is boiled, put it in cold water, and under the stream of water turn the skin on all sides of the potato in different directions. If the vegetable is boiled to perfection and the water is cold enough, you will remove the skin like a stocking.
