When my wife bought the Pampered Chef Mix ‘N’ Chop, I didn’t want to like it. It was an extra gadget that we didn’t need. Then I used it. Now it’s one of my favorite kitchen tools.
Just to keep things even, when we made peach cobbler my wife didn’t want to use the technique I’m about to show you for peeling the peaches. It was just as easy to do them by hand. Then she tried it.
Start by scoring the bottom of each peach with an “X”.
Place them in boiling water for about a minute. (Don’t be a hero and drop heavy fruit into boiling water. Use a slotted spoon or tongs and be careful.)
After a minute in the hot water, put them in cold water.
When they’re cool enough to handle, starting at the score mark you cut in, rub the skin off.
You’ll get just the fuzzy part. (The skin on a peach is much thinner than you think if you’ve only ever peeled them with a knife or peeler.) This works so well, you can even peel over-ripe peaches that have gone a bit soft. Ask me how I know.
And that’s it.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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15 Comments
Very nice…
My late great Aunt Lois, no mean cook herself, would peel tomatoes by impaling them on a fork and turn them while holding them of the gas burner.
Yes, she always peeled tomatoes. Try it, you’ll see why she did.
If more than one or two, she would use hot water like Drew does, but without the knife cuts.
It never occurred to me to do peaches this way!
always nice to see you on this site…..love this place…..and loved your article on making bread.
Your timing is perfect, I’m going to pick up a box of peaches today for canning. I’ll use this trick!
Oh my God, I can’t imagine doing enough peaches for canning, and doing them by hand. Once your hands start getting slippery, it’s not a matter of if you’ll cut yourself, it’s when, where, and how bad.
It’s just like doing tomatoes. I wonder if they also go well with the throw in freezer overnight and then thaw and peel skins off easily method that tomatoes do too.
Ahh, thanks for the great tips.
Why would you peel a perfectly good peach when you can eat all of it?
Because I hate the feel of the fuzzy skin in my mouth.
I decided this year I had to can some local peaches when I noticed the peaches I buy at the store come from Israel! I don’t want to eat food that’s better traveled than I am, when I can go to the farm and buy local
I’ll be careful with the knife!
My grandmother showed me this exact method when she taught me how to can tomatoes last fall. Works like a charm! Maybe I’ll have grandkids one day & be able to show them too! Not for at least another 40 years however…
I’ve got 50+ pounds of peaches sitting on my kitchen table waiting to be canned – I’ll definitely give this a try and see how it works. Thanks for the tip!
This works awesome! I just skinned and cut up 20 lbs of peaches this afternoon – 12 pints canned, a couple pints in the freezer, and a fresh peach cobbler cooling on the stovetop. Life is so good! Thanks for the tip, Drew!
Were you planning to do all the peaches even before seeing this tip? Oh good lord that would have sucked.
I hadn’t even planned that far ahead, I’m so glad I saw this tip before I tried it any other way!
I always hated doing up peaches… my least favorite fruit to handle… love peaches, just not the working with them! (:-)
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[...] You don’t have to peel the peaches, but I hate the feel of the fuzzy skin in my mouth. You can check out yesterday’s post to see an easy way how to peel peaches. [...]