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PEELER
- This article is about kitchenware. For the British constables, see Policing in the United Kingdom.
A potato peeler is a metal blade attached to a metal, plastic or wooden handle that is used for peeling vegetables, usually potatoes.
There are three main varieties, the 'Yorkshire' (or sometimes called a Lancashire peeler) design involving the blade as an extension of a handle, in much the same was as the blade is attached to a knife. Its use involves grasping the potato in one's left hand and holding the peeler in the fingers of the right hand and the top of the potato with the thumb of the right hand. The action then involves using the fingers of the right hand to pull the peeler's blade over the skin of the potato, turning it slightly so that it digs in and removes the potato skin, in a movement towards the right thumb. This also uses the grip of the right thumb to allow the movement of the fingers of the right hand to be based on the contraction of the right hand in a claw movement which is easier to accomplish than if the movement of the right fingers were to be controlled by the right arm or wrist. The invention of the 'Yorkshire' variety of peeler is widely accredited to a nineteenth century blacksmith, Thomas Williams.
Note: left-handed people usually transpose the hands in the above explanation.
The second variety more closely resembles a razor (sometimes it is called a Y-peeler due to its shape or a Rex peeler), with the blade perpendicular to the handle, is used with a similar action to a razor, the potato is grasped in the left hand and the peeler in the right. One then simply drags the blade across the skin to peel it. As with any blades this should be pulled away from the body not towards for safety reasons.
The third variety has no official name, but is used extensively in Australia, where the design originated. It consists of a plastic handle which extends upwards to support both the base and tip of a partially rotating blade. The blade itself is of an unusual shape and is responsible for the amazing ability of this design to quickly peel potatos at a consistant depth of cut. The blade is flexible, some 50mm in length with a width of 8mm. The main feature of the blade is that the cutting edges are formed internally, rather than at the edges, via a cut-out running most of the blade's length. Cheap to produce and purchase, the Australian potato peeler is an accepted part of most kitchen utensil collections in its home country, but is almost unknown outside of Australia.
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