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Comment by oblio | Hacker News Reader

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oblio·

> Carrot peeler? What nonsense. Back of a knife does a fine job.

It does, but it's both slower and less safe than one of these things, if you know how to use it right:

https://www.ikea.com/nl/en/p/ikea-365-vaerdefull-potato-peel...

Personally I'd recommend that style over the "default" peelers that look like this one:

https://www.ikea.com/nl/en/p/ikea-365-vaerdefull-peeler-blac...

The vertical one is much faster.

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The 2nd one is "default"? In the U. S., I don't I've ever seen a peeler that wasn't like your first link. That, or I just never recognized the second link as a peeler. Looks kind of like a cheese slicer to me. :-)

Over here (Europe) the second one is all over the place.

The straight style is more common in US home kitchens; the Y-shaped style seems to be more common in Europe. In the US there has been a trend of chefs and food writers evangelizing the Y-shaped peeler.

In my experience the straight style is more ergonomic for carrots and parsnips whereas the Y-peeler works better for potatoes, citrus, and other roughly spheroidal foods.

(I also use my [very sharp] Y-peeler for shaving hard cheeses into flakes so sure, I guess it is a cheese slicer too :) )

Whilst simultaneously realising the absurdity of the topic, I feel compelled to say how much easier the second style is to use - a thought I've oddly had more than once.

I like to cook with my child, they were able to peel carrots at age three using one, albeit with me holding the carrot!

Never found a butter knife to be much of a challenge. And somebody challenged by simple utensils should probably not be trusted with one of those things :)

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