A knife is perhaps the most useful tool in the kitchen. If you needed to peel and slice apples for a pie, a good knife is all you need. But if you wanted to get fancy, you could start with a vegetable peeler to remove the skin, then use a knife to slice and remove the core. And if you wanted to spend even more money and clutter up your kitchen drawers, you could buy this apple or fruit corer made by OXO. I sometimes make several pies at the same time, and despite lots of help from the cook and others in the house, prepping the apples can be tedious. This corer works wonders and in one movement removes most of the apple core, speeding up the prep process nicely. It is also good if you wanted to stuff a fruit with a filling before baking. I know some people will roll their eyes at this one, but I could do the same thing when they explain they have more than a few pairs of shoes, or handbags, or screwdrivers, for that matter…
16 Responses
Haha, traumatized by the fish pan episode, huh? But apple corers, like the pineapple eye remover, are really useful and convenient esp when preparing in bulk or at short notice…that goes for fish pans, too. Hooray for single use implements!
I have the exact same corer.
An apple corer is one of my indispensible kitchen gadgets. I love apples more than ever because of this very efficient and ingenious ‘thingy’. My corer, though is not by oxo but does the job well. I have an another gadget though which slices an apple into wedges….SO love this gadget too… I love and collect other oxo stuff, though, most especially its peeler.
i am not rolling my eyes! I have one…hehehe!
Cool gadget!!!
hahaha! kitchen gadgets are one of my guilty pleasures… the more obscure and specialized the better. i love strolling around the kitchen section of rustan’s looking for unfamiliar-looking gadgets and guessing what they’re for
BTW, the Ikea in Taiwan recently had an apple corer/slicer on sale for 34 NT (about 46 pesos)
I saw this gadget in Rustan’s. It’s a corer and slicer in one. So in one go, you core the apple and slice it into wedges. Now only it peels it too… I hate peeling apples.
And Siopao, I know what you mean. I’m beginning to wonder if one can have too many silicone spatulas/spoonulas and metal spatulas, offset or otherwise.
OXO has recently been at the cutting edge (pardon the pun) of kitchen smallware!!! If you bake with apple, the corer is definitely indispensable (unless you are willing to dispense with a little bit of your finger from time to time…hehehehe).
MM, try getting one of those apple corer-peeler that looks like a vice-wrench. Its old fashion but works great. The European Pastry Shop were I apprenticed had one and it was really a workhorse.
MM, the parisienne/melon baller (I’m sure you already have one of this floating around) is also a good tool especially for those oddly shaped apples. Just cut the fruit in half and scoop the seeds out en masse. Also works well with pears, cucumbers, etc.
The only problem I have with this OXO corer is removing the core from the gadget’s ring. It always get stuck in there so I have to use a small knife to cut it out of the ring!!! Here in CA, I always find myself in the small kitchen gadgets section of either Bed, Bath and Beyond or Linens and Things store. Looking at all these kitchen gadgets make me feel that my kitchen is so ill equipt!!!
yey, i’ve got a similar one, too :) they’re useful!
my parents have a gadget that cores, peels and slices all in one go! one ends up with thin slices, not wedges, that are half-round.
Titanons, just leave the core in, then do another apple… the first core should pop out then…
i would not survive without my apple corer/slicer! i make all my baby’s food from scratch and this is an important timesaving tool.
Among my favorite gadgets–microplane graters, they make zesting citrus and grating chocolate or cheese so easy, you find yourself figuring out new uses for these ingredients!
Another single-use gadget recently patented in the US was the mango splitter. Quite ingenious and I wonder why we didn’t think of it first. I guess we just love sucking the pit. The only drawback is that it isn’t big enough to handle our kalabaw mangoes.
would this apple corer go into your 10 must-have kitchen tools/gadgets?
would have to admit, i’m a sucker for these new befungling gadgets too. but there will always be the tried and tested and very basic ones which are absolute musts in my own kitchen, and gotta be in this order.
1. good kitchen knife
2. wok
3. immersion blender
4. cast-iron stew pot
5. my Bosch food processor (which can do a million things, so this is kind of cheating a bit on this list…)
6. wine cork opener
8. peeler
9. mortar and pestle
10. coffee maker
there goes. i wonder what would constitute MM’s essentials in his own kitchen?…