No...I prefer to use a paring knife. I have one but never use it.

I think of it as a vegetable peeler, so yes, I use it to peel carrots and shave off pieces of carrot or a hard cheese, like Parmesan, on a salad. I still buy shredded cheese for convenience.

I use it for most vegetables, too. I've never used it for cheese, but that's a good idea.

BTW, it's not "sawdust" that was rumored to be in shredded cheese. It's cellulose, which is used as an anti-clumping agent. See Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wood-in-cheese/

I don't buy pre-shredded or pre-grated cheese. Not because of that, but because I prefer to shred or grate my own.

It's not sawdust in cheese but something more like flour -- to keep it from sticking together. Shred cheese yourself and put it in a package and see what it does. I still buy it if it's cheap enough but mostly buy cheese to shred myself.

When I shred cheese, I do it all at once and bag it w/the seal a meal thingy, then freeze what I'm not going to use right away. Works well.

I made the mistake of using the shredded cheese from the pouch in my broccoli cheese soup and the soup had a gritty texture. I don't buy it anymore, that is disgusting.

I use a veg peeler for veggies except potatoes. It takes to long and I can't be bothered. My husband will use the peeler on potatoes if he's home, but it takes him forrrevvver. Never used it on cheese but my old time grater/shredder works great unless of course you get your fingers to close. Lol.

I don't buy pre-shredder cheese, only because it's cheaper to shred my own.

I will say a peeler makes easy work of peeling carrots which we eat a lot of.

I rarely use a potato peeler. I've never had one that has felt comfortable in my hand.

Shredding cheese goes pretty fast if you have a good shredder. I cook for five so I consider it worth it. I might consider it more of a hassle if I had to clean it after just shredding cheese for one person.

I don't peel carrots -- wash them well, scrub if needed, spray with vinegar and let stand a minute -- the most healthy part of the carrot is next to the skin. Paring knife? I stayed on a farm once and the farmer's wife did that because all the peelings went to the pigs so it wasn't wasteful. By the way -- I hope I don't sound judgemental -- peel the way you like!

We eat most vegetables with the skin on, but the peeler works great for butternut squash. Those things are a pain to peel.

And nothing works on rutabaga other than brute force. It's like peeling a bowling ball.

I don't peel many potatoes unless for mashed. I don't usually peel carrots either. I'll use it on eggplant in season and when making horseradish in the fall.

I hadn't really thought about it but I use my peeler for any vegetables except potatoes. I'm faster with a paring knife. As for cheese, I'm the only one here who eats it and usually buy it as a block and grate it for a single serving. Cleaning the box grater is a PITA so I often skip the cheese and it ends up going to waste. Since Cabot Creamery is local for me, I have many types of quality cheese readily available. I never would have thought of the peeler - thanks for posting this Moni. You just saved me some money. And enhanced my menu - I'll be doing some experimenting! I also don't buy pre-shredded because of the added anti-clumping agent. Just unappealing to me.

I like a U shaped vegetable peeler as it feels right in my hand and the way you move your hand when you’re peeling is to me a more natural direction than the straight peeler.

Little known fact- the little pointy bit on the end of a straight peeler or the small semi circular loop at the side of a U or Y peeler is for digging the eyes out quickly and efficiently :-)

I use the peeler for lots of veggies ... carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, etc.

To grate cheese I use the food processor, Microplane graters, and occasionally the box grater. Never buy pre-shredded.

I use a peeler for lots and lots of things...but not potatoes. :) Like Mama said...takes

too long, I think.

Several years ago, son and his wife came for dinner. To save time, I bought shredded Romano for the pasta dish I was making. Never again. It did not melt. Instead there were large globs of cheese throughout the sauce.

I use my peeler on any vegetable that needs it. My favorite thing is to use it to quickly cut carrots and any other vegetable firm enough to do this, like broccoli stalks, into thin bits, right into the pot, when making a quick soup. But, I never peel potatoes.

The tip of the peeler hulls strawberries nicely too.

I also use a potato peeler where convenient, but also have trouble finding one I like. Years ago someone gave me an OXO peeler, which is awesome. A couple of years ago we bought another OXO peeler, and it's nowhere near as good as the first. With the first, I can easily peel a dozen potatoes in less than 5 minutes. I peel away from myself, a lot of people I know peel towards themselves.

I buy shredded cheese when I have a recipe that calls for a larger amount of shredded cheese and will use it up quickly. Otherwise we just have blocks because they seem to keep much better for a longer period of time. After reading this thread, I now know why the pre-grated cheese doesn't hold up well in soups. I knew there was an agent to keep it from clumping, but hadn't connected that with it being problematic in things like soup.

Pre shredded cheese seems flavorless. We always buy hunks of good quality cheese and shred it manually. Using either a box grater or a handheld rotary cheese grater. Fast and easy, neither is that hard to clean. For slices, we have one of these. For peeling veggies, the same as others. I'm not sure why some are hesitant to peel potatoes - doing so is better for some dishes, not for all, but if needed it only takes a minute.

I use my peeler for just about anything that needs peeling - potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli stems, apples and pears (hubby hates the skins) and so on.

With regard to cheese if we need a small amount, we grate if ourselves. If making something that requires a lot, I buy pre-shredded.

I use a potato peeler for carrots and eggplant. Apparently we should be peeling the tough bottoms of asparagus too, but I never do. I can't use it for potatoes, I prefer a paring knife.

It's not sawdust in shredded cheese, at least I've never heard that. They use cornstarch to keep it from sticking. I too won't buy it. It takes just a minute to shred cheese, so I won't buy it for convenience sake.

I love my shredder/box grate for grating frozen butter for pie crusts, biscuits, etc.

Ya know...it is good for cleaning between the toes.

I use my Y-shaped one to cut off cruddy parts of potatoes, but don't peel the undeteriorated parts; sometimes the point at the side works for eyes sometimes use a pointed knife, often don't bother.

Well, Jim ... what kinda crud - and how long built-up, between yer toes, buddy?

(And where do ya find replaacement skin - also, does it take long to bind?)

o j

Haha..lol

I use my vegetable peeler to peel vegetables.

If I need to shred a small amount of cheese, I use my hand held microplane grater. I also use my mircoolane grater to zest citrus fruits.

If I am shredding a lot for a recipe/multiple people, we use the box grater.

We never buy pre-shredded cheese. It tastes terrible and it doesn't melt. I'm always a little sad when we have Mexican food at my parents house. They only buy pre-shredded. Nothing ruins a good plate of nachos or a burrito faster than putting that junk on it! Now I just go without cheese if that is all that's available.

I use my peeler for every veggie that needs peeling. I can peel potatoes much faster using a peeler. I really love the peeler I got several years ago, made by Oxo. It has a larger handle that is easier for me to hold with hand trouble caused by a bit of arthritis. This peeler is still very sharp and in use most days. OXO Good Grips Pro Peeler

I, too, have used my vegetable/potato peelers on things other than potatoes and vegetables. The two that come to mind are hard cheeses (in salads, for example, grated or shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano pales in comparison to a nice, thick “curl” of it!) and chocolate. And I’ve just recently gone back to buying block cheese and grating it myself. I will say, though, that if I didn’t have a food processor I’d probably keep buying the pre-shredded because hand-grating the amount required for macaroni and cheese is downright not fun.

Those of you who say that your potato/vegetable peeler takes too long and/or doesn’t work very well, may we see what you’re using? After all—like just about everything else in life—all peelers are not created equally, so it could be an equipment problem. These are the ones I use:

My peeler looks like yours black ones Sammy. I find that my strands get caught between the blades or lays on top of the cutter and I have to take them out. I have a Y peeler that works pretty well.

I agree on the OXO peeler. I have two. One is great, the other one is good but not as good as the first one. I use it on veggies. Works great on butternut squash. I also use it when I want shaved cheese for salad, not shredded.

I use an old fashioned vegetable peeler whenever I am peeling veggies too. I have an OXO and a fairly old one from Pampered Chef that really is pretty good. I too use the tip of mine for hulling strawberries.

Not a big fan of packaged shredded cheese. I learned it contained flour, so most people with celiac can’t eat it. Maybe now it contains something else, and maybe it depends on brand. Anyway, fresh shredded is so much better.

I have the black Oxo peeler, but I do not peel potatoes, as the skin is my favorite part. I seldom buy russet potatoes, unless I am going to make gnocchi, and I do peel them then. Mostly I buy Yukon gold, red, or fingerling potatoes and never peel any of those. I also do not peel carrots - I was unaware that they had a peel - but I do give them a good scrub and remove the roots that may be growing.

I use my peeler mainly for apples. For shaved cheese, I use a mandoline or my heavy duty electric meat slicer, which will make extremely thin slices of cheese, if I want it. I do buy sliced cheese but I never buy grated cheese. I have a Microplane box grater for that, but I have to wear Kevlar gloves when using it, as it is extremely sharp. I have a Kitchenaid grater attachment that I used to use, but I decided I like the box grater better. My food processor will make quick work of shredding cheese, but the time it takes to clean it makes it take longer than using the box grater.

I thought pre-grated cheese had cornstarch instead of flour.

I actually don't use my potato peeler for potatoes. I use a knife for them, but use the peeler for carrots. My peeler is one I bought in the late 80s in Germany. Still sharp and works great. I did look at shredded cheese I bought the other day and read the cellulose in the label, but I still bought it. I don't know what I even thought about it. Maybe because it was buy one get one free?

The potato peeler I love is an Oxo. I used those little metal ones for years and I don't know why. I peel potatoes, Hubby doesn't eat the peels. I peel carrots, but save the peels and ends for stock. Just put in freezer with the other scraps. Onion ends, chicken bones and skins, parsley stems, ect.

Yes, it works great for a few shreds of cheese or carrots for a salad, ect.

Yes, I buy pre-grated cheese, but I stay to the name brands. They only have a small amount of the stuff to keep from sticking. The problem is with the generic (especially one big box I won't name). They work fine unless you are making a sauce. Then it works like extra flour and gums everything up. You can still use it, but you have to add extra liquid and it will still separate sometimes. If I am making Mac & Cheese, I always grate block cheese now. I finally figured out why it always worked in the 70's and not now. There wasn't pre-grated cheese then.

I've always used a paring knife to peel potatoes and carrots,etc One time my late SO observed that I was wasting a lot of the potato that way. His mother used the peeler thingy. He said it was because she was thrifty. Well, I think the paring knife is faster and yes sometimes I do take a little too much off the top so to say but I'll keep using the knife.

ETA: never knew about additive in some pre-packaged shredded cheese. Learned something new.

This brand of parm contains no additives.

http://www.4c.com/#products

Great for chocolate shavings too.

Shouldn't someone tell the grated cheese processors ...

... that they shouldn't commit adulter/-y/-ation?

o j

Here's a picture of mine... same oxo as is pictured above.

Fun all the answers to my post. :)

I have the one Moni posted. Works great.

i peel away from myself.

According to this thread, it looks like the OXO is the most appealing. :)

And according to OXO’s own website, it’s among its most loved products:

I just can't use a knife to peel potatoes. I end up cutting away a lot of potato. I use a peeler,and it takes maybe 10 seconds to peel a potato with it. It's a kitchenaid. Bought for its color,light pink and I like it. I have 2 or 3 of them. I stocked up when I found them because kitchenaid does not make that shade of pink anymore. The monsters.....

Growing up,I used to hate peeling potatoes because the potato peeler my mother had must have been the first one ever made and was so dull and useless it would take all afternoon to peel a pot of potatoes with it. She used a knife,so never saw the need to replace it. I got fussed at a lot for wasting potatoes when trying to peel them with a knife. She still has that peeler. For what I don't know.

I find that the grated cheese doesn't have nearly the flavor of freshly grated. And I use my peeler for parmesan and cheddar for salads and stuff.

As I grew up, I had a Mom who was a southern style cook and we canned large amounts of fruits and vegetables during the summer. During canning days, my sister and I had the job of peeling. We used a peeler on many things and a sharp paring knife for tough skins such as turnips. The toughest thing to peel was peaches. A ripe peach is soft and its takes skill to skin a peach without creating excessive waste or squeezing the peach. Most of the stuff we peeled probably could have been processed without peeling except peaches. We did not want to eat the fuzzy peal that covers a peach, however, when I ate a raw peach, I never peeled it. I merely thoroughly cleaned the fruit before devouring.

After my sister and I had peeled 2 bushel of fruit, we were ready to quit, but we did not. It was imperative that we keep the peeled product flowing while Mother canned. There was no set quitting time. We continued until all the needed product was finished. However, we had the cooler job. Mother canned using a wood fired kitchen stove.

This may seem harsh, but this was how rural farm folks survived during the war years of the 1940s.

These days, I do not peel much. Potatoes get peeled if those are to be mashed. Most of the time, I do not mash, I bake the potato.

Peeling no longer appeals to me.

Jemdandy, why on earth didn’t you dip the peaches in boiling water for about a minute? The skins just slip right off with no need for a knife or peeler.

Colleen, prolly because no one did this back then? Wasn't known?

Moni

I always use a peeler, and I pull it towards myself. I can't use a knife either, can't bear to waste all that potato. But also I broke away from the way my Mom and most country women use their knives, I always use a cutting board, never slice and dice in my hands. My Mom didn't even own a cutting board, and she managed to make very evenly sized cubes and slices, whatever she needed, just holding the veggie in one hand and the knife in the other. But then she was also capable of sitting at the kitchen table with no mirror, a glass of water, a comb and a pack of bobby pins and pin-curl her whole head. Amazing!! When I visited her sister in WV I stayed home to make a meal while the other half went somewhere. I couldn't find a cutting board or a peeler and I was quite perturbed. Then, when we sat down to eat, I had made a salad with romaine lettuce, I had torn the leaves into bite-sized pieces like I always do. My Aunt - without saying a word - went over to the drawer and brought out this chopper thing and proceeded to chop the heck out of all the ingredients in the bowl. Of course it didn't bother me but it did remind me that different people in different areas just do things different.

About the only thing I peel are potatoes, sometimes. And like someone said, I am cutting them up, so it is just fast for me. I could probably do well with a better peeler. The one I have is an old metal one. Nothing goes to waste here. My mother would roll over in her grave if I put any type of food stuff in the trash. It is not something I have ever done.