Why do some peelers skin produce with ease while others barely make the cut?
Published Mar. 21, 2023.
A great peeler makes short work of prepping vegetables and fruit. The best are light and comfortable, with a sharp, maneuverable blade that peels neatly without waste and keeps its edge. There are two main types: Y-shaped and straight; we chose favorites of each. The Kuhn Rikon Original Swiss Peeler, our longtime Y-shaped winner, is our top choice, with its smoothly gliding, wickedly sharp carbon-steel blade. If you prefer straight peelers, we suggest the OXO Good Grips Swivel Peeler, with its sharp stainless-steel blade.
We use vegetable/fruit peelers to prep a variety of produce, from carrots and potatoes to tough squash, tender ginger, and leathery lemon peel—and even for shaving Parmesan flakes or making chocolate curls. Bad peelers abound, though, making these jobs tiresome and even sometimes dangerous.
A good peeler should be fast and smooth, shaving off just enough skin to avoid the need for repeat trips over the same section but not so much that the blade digs deeply into the flesh and wastes food. Whatever the task, the peeler should handle bumps and curves with ease and without clogging or losing its edge. And when the work is done, your hand shouldn’t feel the worse for wear.
We rounded up more than a dozen peelers in two main styles—Y-shaped and straight—plus a few innovative models, and put them to the test.
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Lisa is an executive editor for ATK Reviews, cohost of Gear Heads on YouTube, and gadget expert on TV's America's Test Kitchen.