Peeling Peaches

[mountainsoft]

I made a salad and a crisp last night that asked for fresh peaches. Shocker, I've never peeled a peach in my life. So I did what any person would do these days, I watched YouTube videos.

It looked easy. Get some water boiling in a large pot, dunk the peaches in boiling water for a minute or so, then immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water. Remove the peach from the water and "effortlessly" remove the skin from the peach. Finally, slice all the way around the peach, and twist to separate the two halves and pop the pit out. Easy-Peachy.

I did everything as instructed, but all I ended up with was a wet slimy mess. No matter what I did, the skins would not come off without a lot of work. I tried blanching for 30 seconds, 60 seconds, and 90 seconds with similar results. Eventually I got all the skin off but they looked mutilated when I was done. Giant snotty balls of goo I could barely hang on to.

I grabbed one of the peaches, sliced all the way around and gave a twist to "pop the pit out". Of course, the halves did not separate and my fingers just dug into the peach mutilating the soggy mangled peach even further.

After destroying a couple of peaches I gave up and just started cutting off chunks of peach around the pit with a knife.

In the end I ended up with a bowl of really wet peach pieces that I could use for my two recipes. They tasted fine, but it was 40 minutes of messy work for horrible looking peach chunks.

My peach crisp turned out more like peach soup, but with enough butter and sugar anything is edible. The salad was really good too, but I kept thinking how much easier it would be to use canned peaches.

 

[audreyh1]

If the peel is hard to get off I sometimes resort to a vegetable peeler rather than paring knife.

But many times, if the peach is nice and ripe, I can pull large sections of skin off once I grab a corner between paring knife and thumb.

I rarely use the blanch method.

 

[GrayHare]

Peach variety and ripeness can influence how tightly the peel sticks.

 

[mpeirce]

Peaches. Oh so good!

I always ate fresh peaches with the skin on. Even when I sliced them for on ice cream I never even considered peeling them. A little fuzz? Never thought about it.

Then my DW freaked out that I didn't peel peaches. OK. OK. I can do that I suppose.

What I do is slide them in half - just cut around the center to the pit and pop the two halves apart. Then, placing the flat side down on a cutting board, I trim the skin off taking care to not lose too much peach in the process. Then slide the half as the last step.

Of course the "pop them apart" only works with cling free peaches. There are also clingstone peaches where the pit is much harder to separate from the flesh. I avoid these if I want to slice them up, but they can be wonderful peaches for just eating.

Frankly, that's my favorite way to eat a peach - especially very ripe peaches, just eating them out of hand. I does help to be outside so the juice doesn't make a mess.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Blanching peaches works well for me and those skins really do slip right off, but I don't go to the trouble unless I'm peeling a lot of peaches at once for jam, pie, cobbler, etc. I've found that leaving the peaches in the ice water for several minutes helps a lot.

Sounds like you had a "cling" variety of peach, meaning the pit clings to the fruit. Pitting them gets easier as the fruit ripens with age.

 

[msieweke]

I peel peaches with a vegetable peeler. I know it's heresy, but this works best for me.

There are two general types of peaches: freestone and cling, which indicates how the flesh attaches to the pit. The pit pops free easily with freestone type. You have to slice the flesh off a cling peach. You don't always know what you're getting. I bought peaches last week and had 6 freestone and 1 cling in the bag.

 

[mountainsoft]

I peel peaches with a vegetable peeler. I know it's heresy, but this works best for me.

There are two general types of peaches: freestone and cling, which indicates how the flesh attaches to the pit. The pit pops free easily with freestone type. You have to slice the flesh off a cling peach. You don't always know what you're getting. I bought peaches last week and had 6 freestone and 1 cling in the bag.

Maybe I had the wrong kind of peach. I've never had a fresh peach before (what rock have I been under) so I didn't even think to check what variety it was.

In the future I think I would probably just grab a small knife and peel it like an apple. I might lose some of the fruit, but that would sure beat the fiasco I went through yesterday.

 

[LRDave]

Wow. I have never eaten an unpeeled peach in my life. Peaches that need blanching or a vegetable peeler are not ready to eat! Most grocery store peaches are hard as rocks or mealy mush. We've had a bushel from central GA and a basket from NE Alabama that were divine this year. DW made peach jam that would make you wanna slap your grandma.

 

[LRDave]

Next, you're going to tell me you don't peel tomatoes.......

 

[Gumby]

Wow. I have never eaten an unpeeled peach in my life.

And I've never eaten a peeled one. Horses for courses.

 

[Nemo2]

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-healthy-to-eat-the-skin-of-peaches

The peach skin also contains beneficial fibers for your body. Fibers are essential for a healthy bowel movement and maintaining low sugar and cholesterol levels. Fibers are essential for both weight loss and weight gain. Basically, it helps to reach an optimum weight. Besides this, peach skin possesses anti-inflammatory properties as well.

You are missing out

Pop quiz! What will you missing out if you peel off the peach skin before eating? If you are following us until now you would know that you will be missing out on beneficial vitamins, fibers, and anti-oxidants. And that’s not all. A considerable portion of the nutrients of peach is present in the skin. When you peel that off, you are actually taking away a good chunk of the beneficial nutrients.

Therefore, the moral of the story is, you should eat peach skin due to all the health benefits it provides.

About the only fruits I peel are bananas and pineapples.

 

[MissMolly]

Next, you're going to tell me you don't peel tomatoes.......

I do! I always peel my tomatoes. Everyone thinks I'm weird, but that's what my mom did, so that's what I do. Besides, I don't like tomato peel stuck in my teeth.

I just had two peaches tonight. I have one of those hot water things at my sink that you use to make instant coffee or tea. I just stick my peach on a fork and hold it under the boiling hot water for about 30 - 45 seconds. Peeling comes right off.

 

[mpeirce]

Peaches that need blanching or a vegetable peeler are not ready to eat! Most grocery store peaches are hard as rocks or mealy mush. We've had a bushel from central GA and a basket from NE Alabama that were divine this year. DW made peach jam that would make you wanna slap your grandma.

Local peaches (from whatever locale) are sublime. Grocery store peaches are almost never worthwhile.

I get my peaches from along Lake Erie in Ohio. The lake provides a microclimate where peaches (and plums - my actual favorite fruit) can be grown. So so good.

 

[audreyh1]

I pretty much will only buy local peaches. Almost never in a grocery store. It’s best to go right to the farmer if you can or a farmer’s market.

We had a volunteer peach tree at my Dads house and last summer I was there at the right time and they were sooooo good.

 

[MRG]

Next, you're going to tell me you don't peel tomatoes.......

What kind of heathens do you think we are? Never eaten tomato skin or peach fuzz. I didn't realize you can blanch peaches, they're not hard to peel with a sharp knife, kinda like tomatoes.

Do you peel bananas?

 

[MichaelB]

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-healthy-to-eat-the-skin-of-peaches

About the only fruits I peel are bananas and pineapples.

Don’t you peel avocado, watermelon, or pumpkin?

 

[Nemo2]

Don’t you peel avocado or pumpkin?

Back to the drawing board for me!

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Don’t you peel avocado, watermelon, or pumpkin?

Actually, I don't peel those, I eat an avocado out of the skin with a spoon, I eat the watermelon off the rind (rather than the other way around), and then I never bothered with pumpkin...my favorite part has always been the seeds, salted and toasted! :-9

But seriously, with peaches, I think the problem is that the pit only comes out easily when the flesh is firm and less ripe, and the skin only comes off easily when it's very ripe. I'd probably cut it in half, scoop out the pit as best I could, then work on the skin on each half, then cut the peeled halves.

Oh, who am I kidding, I would never try a salad that called for peeled peaches...or if I did, I'd probably use canned!

 

[Senator]

The grocery stores up here shave them for you before they put them out. Then they call them Nectarines.