I’m 51 years old, and I have always cut an apple in half and then put the flat side down on the cutting board and cut from the skin side to the center. Then I spent time carving out the stem, seeds, and bloom portions of each slice… just like my Mom did.
Tonight for whatever reason, I cut the apple in half, and thinking I only needed a slice or two, cut from the core side out. Just a little off center. I then cut a few more slices the same way, just rotating it a bit and still keeping just outside of the core for the start of my slice. I was left with two half cores and several perfect slices.
Did I just figure out something out that nobody else has realized before, or did my Mom lead me astray oh so many years ago and make me look like a fool?
I slice an apple in a way my son calls “that square thing”- I place the apple stem side up and cut in 4 straight lines, top to bottom. It results in a square-shaped leftover core piece. A little more apple tends to get discarded than I like, so now I only do it when he requests. The rest of the time, I use one of these.
I cut it in half top to bottom. Then with each half I place it skin side down with the core at 90 degrees to me. I cut it in half just to the right of the core and then trim the least bit possible off the top of each peak. I end up with 4 little batons of core, 2 bigger and 2 smaller. Takes about 10 seconds.
And the machines mentioned by Finagle are great, fun for kids too.
Yep, that’s what I use too. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever even sliced an apple by hand. Even when I need small pieces, I use the corer first and then chop up the slices.
Since childhood I’d quarter an apple, then cut the cores out of each quarter as wedges: 11 cuts.
Then I watched Rebecca DeMornay cut an apple in The Hand that Rocks the Cradle by halving the apple, then stabbing and twisting each core out. 3 cuts, leaving a perfect divot to put in cheese or peanut butter
But I still haven’t quite gotten the knack of rigging up greenhouses to kill my rivals.
I used to carve the core section out of each of 4 wedges with a v-cut, then cut those wedges each into 2 wedges, yielding 8 more or less even slices per apple.
Then I figured out it takes less then 2 seconds to scoop the core out with a melon baller when I’m still at the “halved” stage. Then I can use a wedgecut to slice each half into as many beautiful even slices as I want. So much faster and more even, I can’t begin to tell you…
When I cut an apple,
Core side up, cut through the center into two equal pieces.
Skin side against the cutting board, cut in half length wise.
Do V/C cut to remove core from each wedge.
My first choice is actually just to eat it w/o cutting it,
Choice two has been the apple slicer that prettydorky referenced.
Why is this in Cafe Society? Should this be in IMHO?
[ol]
[li]First, cut the apple in half along the ‘equator’, halfway between stem and blossom, so that the stem is on one half and the blossom on the other half.[/li][li]This will expose the core as a five-pointed star in both sides.[/li][li]From one half the apple, cut a wide wedge with a single cut flush to two points of the star. Cut this up into smaller pieces to taste and eat.[/li][li]Proceed to cut smaller wedges out, each cut flush with two adjacent points of the star. The last wedge will be just about bite-sized.[/li][li]Throw out the half core[/li][li]Proceed the same way on the second apple half[/li][/ol]
I end up with the square core also.
Hold apple between thumb and forefinger with thumb and forefinger at ends of stem. Rest side of hand on cutting board holding stem horizontally.
Chop side of apple off using thumb and finger as guide just missing thumb and fore finger.
Lay apple flat on cut face. Make two cuts to the left and right of the stem.
Take remaining piece attached to stem, lie flat and cu tto the side of the stem one last time.
I have both the crank corer/peeler/slicer and a regular corer/slicer and never use anything else. It’s easy and apple slicing is over with in nanoseconds. Important for hungry apple-eaters/ankle-biters in my house.
you can cut down the core center and the cut out the core with a circular cut. this is good for pie use. this also leaves more slices to put peanut butter on.
you can square cut and trim the top and bottom corners to not waste fruit.
if eating raw you can also eat the core and seeds, it is really not that bad.
When I was a kid, my mom cut apples in half through the North-South poles, and then would cut out the center of the core PERFECTLY, and remove the stem and blossom ends with very efficient wedge cuts.
Whenever I tried to duplicate that, I’d end up with a hacked mess. I used the square cut technique, but always felt so inadequate, since I kept botching the method Momma used.
One day, I got smart: instead of using the biggest knife in the kitchen, I got a small paring knife and I gripped the blade near the tip. The core would slice out beautifully, with minimal manglement.
Then I realized that while Momma had used a big, honkin’ knife to cut those red Delicious apples in half, through the North-South poles, she had just changed her grip on the knife to clean out the cores. DUH! All these years, I’d been doing the Japanese Samurai handle grip, and wondered why I hacked the apples to bits instead of clearing out the core like she did.
When you do a neat job of cleaning out the core, you can fill it with peanut butter and put the apple back together. YUM!
~VOW
Most of the apples I ate as a kid were festooned with peanut butter. In order to have the best surface for peanut butter you cut the apple in half then scoop out the core using a knife on each half in a circular motion. No melon baller needed - just don’t cut out a piece of your palm, too!
From there you can put peanut butter on, or go further with your knifing and cut in to core-less slices.
I’ve been coring like this since I was a wee kid, so it’s not that hard. You guys should try it!
I nearly always used the apple slicer/corer thing linked above. Even if I’m making pie. I start with that and then slice each wedge into smaller slices.
