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More often than not, some of our favorite buys are small, how-didn’t-I-know-about-this products that solve an everyday problem. That’s what we’re highlighting in our Little Lifesavers series: cheap, simple purchases that you’ll use on the daily. Hit “Add to Cart” and thank us later!
The Problem: I bake with a lot of apples. I make a ton of applesauce, apple pies, apple tarts, and apple cakes — and peeling, coring, and slicing them has forever been a pain.
The Solution: The Tatida apple peeler, corer, and slicer lets you peel and chop an apple in a matter of seconds.
I love to cook, and I love to bake. Simply put, it relaxes me and brings me joy. Even the prep work of getting the meals together and chopping veggies and herbs is soothing. One task, though, has always irritated me — peeling and chopping apples. Peeling takes forever, chopping them with a knife can lead to uneven slices, and using an apple slicer is annoying and creates chunks that are too large.
As is the way of the magical internet, Amazon was able to read my mind once again, apparently, and showed me a nifty 3-in-1 apple peeler, corer, and slicers tool in my ads. (Probably due to all the apples I buy at Whole Foods, but it could also very well be that the algorithm is a sinister entity that reads my mind and hears my every conversation. I’m not ruling that out.)
But in all seriousness, the ad genuinely caught my attention. The peeler was apparently sturdy steel, had thousands of five-star reviews, and it was under just $20. I thought, “What could it hurt? I’ll try it.” So I one-clicked that bad boy and promptly forgot about it until it arrived a few days later. It just so happened that the day before it arrived, my family and I went to the orchard. To say we had apples in abundance would be putting it mildly. My kitchen overfloweth with gorgeous Stayman winesaps, Black Oxfords, and cameos.
Opening the peeler, it looked a bit like something you’d find in your grandfather’s workshop, or perhaps a medieval torture chamber. Certainly, it doesn’t resemble any kitchen tool I’ve ever purchased. It looks like a crank with spikes on a suction cup, and essentially, that’s what it is — and its simplicity is what makes it so great. Let me explain…
How it Works
The Tatida apple peeler is made of chrome-cast magnesium alloy with steel blades and a rubber base. It’s designed to be user-friendly, and the only thing you have to do to assemble it is screw on the handle.
The suction cup holds onto any non-porous surface and the turning lever affixes it to your table. I use a steel table, and it really grips it well. Then, you core the apple, top-side into the spikes, and when you wind the crank, it pushes the apple forward through the coring and slicing blades. At the same time, a U-shaped peeler rids the apple of its skin. This creates a peeled apple sliced into a 1/3-inch spiral slice. If you only want to peel, and not core and slice it, you simply move the blade and corer down via a small lever. The whole thing takes almost no energy, with the most difficult part being getting the apple onto the spikes — which, compared to traditional peeling, coring, and slicing, is an absolute walk in the park. To clean it, you simply submerge the whole thing in soapy water and rinse it off.
How I Tested
To say I put the Tatida apple peeler through its paces would be an understatement. I sliced dozens upon dozens of apples for six different apple tarts I tested for the upcoming holiday (Ina Garten’s being my favorite). I also made two pies using my Black Oxford apples and sliced many Staymans purely for my children’s eating pleasure. As if that weren’t enough, I also used it on several Asian pears, bosc pears, and one very wily red pear. They all went through with ease, though that red pear left a trail of juice in its wake.
It’s not a perfect machine — there is no such thing. As I mentioned, getting the apple onto the spikes can be tricky, and the denser the fruit, the harder it is. For example, I slid the pear onto the spikes with ease and almost no resistance. But for sturdy apples like Black Oxfords and winesaps, you have to shove those onto the spikes with solid pressure. Honeycrisps, which are firm but light and juicy, go on fairly easily, with little resistance.
Final Thoughts
I honestly don’t know where the Tatida apple peeler, corer, and slicer has been all my life — but I’m so glad I found it. I live in the literal Big Apple, and it’s my favorite fruit for eating and baking (and salads, beverages, and fried in dough. If it’s apple, it’s for me. Apple ice cream, too). This (somewhat) weird, inexpensive little tool has made my life so much easier and has taken a chore I hated and made it something quasi-entertaining. Watching it do its thing, leaving a spiral of peel and a seedy core in its wake, is almost mesmerizing, and it’s something that will live in my kitchen forever.
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