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How do you efficiently peel an onion, so both time and material wasted is minimized?

The way I do it: I cut off the stem part farthest from the roots (which has to go anyways, and gives me a nice flat bit to stand the onion on for the next cut), then slice it in half. At this point comes the crux: to peel off the brown outermost layer, I can worry at it with my fingernails or a knife, but that brown stuff mostly flakes/brakes off and doesn't detach in a nice way, except in very rare occasions. Even though it's material efficient, it takes too long.

Alternatively, I can peel off the next-to-outermost good ("meaty") layer together with the brown skin, which goes very fast but wastes that layer.

Is there a way to very quickly and cleanly get off only the brown skin?

AnoE
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2 Answers2

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Kenji Lopez-Alt, cookbook author and NYT columnist, has mentioned offhand a couple of times in his Youtube videos that he feels most people don't peel off enough layers when preparing onions; that the semi-dry, slightly tough outer-layer-ness extends further into the onion than many people think.

It's possible this attitude is a result of his chef background, however, where the quality of the final dish is prioritised more highly than efficiency of ingredient use, et cetera.

Ultimately, the decision is yours; if the value of saving one extra layer of onion is worth the time spent carefully flensing the brown skin off of it and the possibility of a slightly worse texture in the final dish, then go ahead and carefully remove only the brown. Personally, I take off the first white layer; onions are cheap, time and effort are precious, and the scraps are useful anyway.

Blargant
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Cutting off the pointy end before you halve the onion may not be helping. If you halve it first, that end makes it much easier to get a grip on the papery layers to start peeling them off.

I find it useful to remove any very loose flaky layers before I start work in earnest and I do that over the bin to keep the dust and dirt off my board, then if the less dried layers are resistant to peeling, I put the onions on a bowl of water for a few minutes. Once the brown layers absorb a bit of water they are much easier to deal with.

Spagirl
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