I finally broke down and got myself that apple peeler/corer/slicer. I didn’t order it from Amazon, but it’s the same one as in the link.
Easy as, well…pie. Pull the axle all the way back, stick the prongs up the apple’s butt, rachet it forward so the peeling blade is at the top of the apple, and turn, turn, turn. The peeler takes off the skin in one long strip, another cutting edge slices the apple into one big spiral, and moving the axle forward pushes the apple through a sharp-edged hole, so the core stays where it is and the apple gets pushed out. Voila! The only drawback is that sometimes the core is not perfectly aligned, but seeing as it took me about two minutes per apple, vs. the usual half an hour, to do seven apples, that is hardly a problem.
Aligning the core does take practice. I bring the prongs forward until the apple is nestled between the prongs and coring blade, stem end toward the prongs. Center the flower end to the coring blade exactly, then pull the apple straight back onto the prongs. Then I pull the prongs back far enough for the peeler blade to hit the front of the apple, and I’m on my way. At most I wind up with one quick trim per apple, if it had a large core.
It’s so much nicer to do pie this way, the apples are always the same size, and so much easier to do. Throw in a Pillsbury pie crust, and apple pie is easy enough to make every day.
Thanks for the tip, Cheesesteak! Another bonus is getting a lot more fruit; I always used to take away too much apple with the peel. And the slices are so thin, the filling really holds together!
However, speak not of Pillsbury crust. I make my crust from flour, sugar and butter, in a food processor.
I used to make apple pies at a gourmet shop/bakery/deli in central NJ that was(is?) pretty well known for their pie. I sliced up boxes and boxes and *boxes *of apples with those things. Very convenient. The owner’s dad even rigged one to a little motor that we’d use every now and then.