The Biggest Mistake When Peeling Peaches, According To A Food Editor

Summer bestows a bounty of gifts upon the South, but those gifts can come at a painful price. While there’s not a lot of danger inherent to harvesting and cooking with tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, or okra, one Southern summer staple is fraught with peril—peaches.

In the same way that folks are afflicted with “Avocado Hand” after accidentally cutting themselves while slicing an avocado while holding it, some Southerners suffer a very similar fate when attempting to peel their favorite summer fruit. It’s the painful condition known as “Peach Palm" — and the possibility of it happening lurks in the preparation of your favorite peach desserts.

What Is Peach Palm?

As with Avocado Hand, Peach Palm is a real injury that can occur from improperly cutting a fruit. The best way to avoid Peach Palm is to refrain from holding the fruit in your hand while peeling it with a knife. Following our guide for the right way to peel a peach (which includes a helpful video) is the safest place to start, but I have a few hints that will help you keep safe.

The Best Knife To Use

Instead of using a sharp knife, I suggest using a dull knife. Chefs and serious cooks preach about the importance of using sharp knives to reduce cuts. And while this seems counterintuitive, it is often true — sharp knives require less force which translates into fewer catastrophic accidents. But a dull knife is your best bet for peeling ripe peaches.

We’re not talking butter knife dull, but pretty darn close. I have an old paring knife with a wooden handle that I call “my peach knife.” She’s one of those kitchen tools that gets utilized for everything, from prying open stuck jar lids to chipping items out of my freezer.

She even goes in the dishwasher, if that tells you anything our relationship and her condition. But what she lacks in sharpness she makes up for in safety. Even with an overzealous slip, that knife won’t break skin. It’s just right for trimming away those pretty, sunset-toned peels, or, if you’re lucky, pulling them right off the peach like peeling a label off a jar.

To Peel or Not To Peel a Peach

Peach peels are polarizing—Southerners either love them or hate them. I’m the first to admit that I grew up on Team Hate. My grandmother peeled them, so my mom did, and I followed suit. But after working with several awesome folks over the past 20 years who would bite an unpeeled peach like an apple, I’ve come to tolerate these precious little fuzzbutts a little better.

I don’t always leave them unpeeled now, but I try. I give them a good rinse first—whether this helps wash off the fuzz or is purely a psychological move I cannot say. I think it helps, so it does, and that’s good enough for me.

My Trick For Cutting Peaches

In the interest of thwarting Peach Palm, I use a knife as little as possible. Here's my process:

1. I place the peach on a cutting board, slice down along the crease with my dull knife until I hit the pit.
2. Then I kind of roll the peach with the knife blade against the pit until I've cut all the way around the pit.
3. Assuming the peach is ripe enough (or it’s a freestone) I'm usually able to simply twist the halves apart, then pry out the pit.
4. After that, I turn the halves cut side down and cut as desired.If

If I’m feeling really rowdy and rustic, I’ll just rip the ripe peach halves apart with my hands! This past Memorial Day I did just exactly that, while sitting on a pier on the Little Lagoon at Fort Morgan, Alabama, with a cold adult beverage within reach. That night I served a “Torn Peach Cobbler” to rave reviews—without shedding one drop of blood.