Back To Basics Apple And Potato Peeler
|
List Price: Our Price: $15.32 You Save: $20.68 (57%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Kitchen See more product details |
|---|
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Back To Basics Apple And Potato Peeler
Customer Review: Pretty cool!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Several years ago, our tree had so many apples that I decided to go buy a peeler since I got really sick of peeling and coring them by hand. This is the one I bought. Maybe it was the end of apple season or maybe I was just intimidated by an unfamiliar little hand appliance--somehow it just never got used. It got shuffled to the back of the cabinet and was found today when I was cleaning out that cabinet. My thoughts were: Another impulse buy!! Something I've never used!! A space-waster!!
BUT--since I paid money for it, I decided to come here and read the reviews before adding it to the "get rid of" box. I was pretty sure I'd find everyone here saying that it didn't work and then I would feel justified in getting rid of this piece of junk.
What a shock! Between all the glowing reviews and the video review that someone had posted which demonstrated how easy it is to use, I had some major second thoughts. I went back into the kitchen and pulled out a bag of potatoes so I could try it for myself (no apples on hand).
Verdict?? The reviewers did it again!! A definite keeper. It will quickly peel, core and/or slice--in any combination. I sliced one and kept the peel on(which I like) for a dish like scalloped potatoes. Another, I peeled and cored and sliced, as I would an apple for pie. Then I peeled one without slicing it, like you would for someone who wanted to eat an apple without a peel or if I had to peel potatoes so that I could use them to cut into fries or shred later.
My last comment is that I sure wish I could give Amazon reviewers 5 stars!! I realized how much I've learned to trust the reviews here when I found myself checking here BEFORE I threw this peeler out. To me, it is pretty cool that real people are motivated enough to come back after buying something to post their opinions--both good and bad--just to help someone else. This is definitely the place to come to find out whether something is worth buying in the first place OR to get helpful hints on how to use what you've bought.
Customer Review: I love this "Gadget"
Summary: 5 Stars
You know how many gadgets "seem" like a great idea, but then when you use them they're more trouble than they're worth and they end up getting stuck in the back of a cupboard, never to see the light of day until you move? Well, this apple peeler isn't one of "those" gadgets. It's really quite brilliant and works exactly as advertised. For some reason my life has entered the Twilight Zone of apple pie. I find myself promising to bring an apple pie to events at least once every two months. It's truly bizarre. Nevertheless, while I enjoy cooking, I really hate the tedious aspects of it. Peeling, coring, and slicing apples for a pie ranks right up there with pulling all those little wool balls off a favorite sweater. I have great knives. I have an expensive (and scary) mandolin. I've tried them all, but it's still torture preparing those apples. So I purchased this apple peeler because I saw some chef using it in a newspaper article. Wow, it works perfectly and it's sturdily built - cast iron. Read the instructions to set it up and it's fool proof. To peel, core and slice 8 granny smiths for a pie, it takes about 3 minutes. (Without this gadget, it would take me 30-45 minutes, since I'm not that handy at tedious chores.) It has a really good vacuum suction pad that immobilizes the unit for easy operation. The apple is perfectly peeled, it's cored and sliced in approximately 1/4 inch slices. Total heaven! I've not tried it with potatoes, so I can't comment on how it performs. The only thing I would caution you about is when you wash it, dry it very carefully. When I took mine out tonight to make another one of those damned pies, I noticed some oxidation (rust) on the central shaft. It wiped off easily enough though. So if you've considering another gadget that promises to make your life perfect, consider this one. It won't bring you wealth or fame or the adoration of the masses, but your dinner guests will sure like your apple pies.Customer Review: Worthwhile and Easy
Summary: 5 Stars
Ninety pounds of apples, six different kinds of chunky applesauce and the easiest and quickest task was peeling the apples, thanks to this little gem. I always thought these types of peelers were more along the lines of "gadgets" - you know, not really needed and another thing to have to store......oh, I was wrong wrong wrong.
Granted, it took a bit of time to set the blade to the desired cutting depth (too many cooks in the kitchen) and there was much discussion about its probable worthiness. We ended up adding a clamp to stabilize the unit because apple-peeling-central was located on a porous-topped table, however once the peeler was ready to go it was deemed the single easiest task of the nine hours of applesauce canning.
I was in charge of buying the apples and I purposefully selected the largest apples I could find (mostly Fuji and Jonah Gold) because I was honed in on trying to cut down on the time it would take to peel so many apples - I figured the bigger the apple, the fewer the apples to peel. However, we soon found the opposite to be true - in fact we found quite a few apples simple didn't fit and/or would end up only partially peeled (still, a partially peeled apple saved lots of time). The smaller apples (Brayburn and Delicious) peeled with ease and speed. The "waxy" peel on our Fujis often created skipped patches on the apples, but this wasn't a deal-breaker. Even with these little challenges, we all proclaimed this to be the single best investment. Lone caveat: speedy peeling can create a spraying juice effect - just keep your mouth open and you'll enjoy fresh apple juice :)
For our applesauce canning we opted to forgo the slicer which meant no automatic corer - a peeler/corer sans the slicer would be my first choice, yet the slicer/corer did an outstanding job on the test apples. I left this unit with the applesauce canning hostess, thus I'm back to buy one for myself.
Customer Review: Better than I expected!
Summary: 5 Stars
I wasn't really sure about this gadget, but now that I've used it to make an apple crisp, I am a BELIEVER.
Setting it up is very easy -- all you really have to do is attach the fork at one end and the handle at the other. Then you have to go through the process of aligning everything so that it will peel/core correctly. In total, all of that took me about 10 minutes, maybe less. Very easy, no tools needed.
I tried it for the first time yesterday when I made a slow cooker apple crisp that required 6 medium apples, peeled and sliced. There was no way on God's green earth that I was going to do that by hand with a knife, so I whipped out this little doohickey.
It could not have been faster or easier. I was really expecting to have to put some muscle into it to make the apple go through the corer, but it actually goes through really easily. I did have to hold my hand down on the machine pretty firmly because it was slipping just a little bit, but just a little pressure kept it in place. I only needed one hand to turn the crank and it required little to no effort.
The apples came out perfectly peeled, cored, and sliced, except for a little bit of skin left on the very top and very bottom of the apple that the machine didn't catch. The core itself was very easy to remove from the machine after putting the apple through. All in all, doing 6 apples took me about 5 minutes. This machine is completely worth the money. I'll be making more apple pies and crisps from now on. :)
Customer Review: Must have in my kitchen
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the Back to Basics Apple Peeler a few months ago. Since that time I have used it for three apple pies, and 30 quarts of canned apples, not to mention the "extras" that the grandkids did for snacks.
The product arrived in a timely fashion, well packaged, and was very easy to set up and start using.
It has been put through the "speed peel" test that only ten and seven year old boys can administer (10 gallon bucket of apples on this venture :) It did not break, it still works perfectly. The blades are still sharp, the corer still works great, and all in all it is as good as the day I purchased it. We had a blast working on the apples together and watching the peel come off in long strings :) Even if the apple is not put on the peeler correctly (core not straight), the peeler still does it's job. (We each took turns putting the apples on the peeler.)
At first, the spring is tight and the peeler takes a bit deeper chunk than when it loosens up, but the time saved is well worth the little bit of apple lost. And, we did all shapes of apples and all peeled quite well. There is a bit of peel left at the very top and bottom when finished.
This will be a permanent appliance in my kitchen as long as I am harvesting apples. I seldom write reviews but I was very impressed with this product.