Contest Idea: How to peel an orange in one piece

How to peel an orange in one piece

Over years of almost-daily orange eating, I have developed a 90% effective workflow for removing the peel from an orange in one piece. While this might not seem important, people who see me do it generally ask about it, so I thought it would be cool if you would illustrate the process for the world. Having a nice hand-drawn set of instructions to frame on my wall would save me time explaining it to people as well.

Here's the instructions:

1. Remove the stem from the top of the orange. You're going to start peeling from the depressed area uner the stem.

2. Slide your thumb, nail down, under the orange peel in a circle around the depression on the top. Move your thumb a tiny distance down the orange as you do so. Make sure your thumbs is deep enough under the peel that your first circle of peel is at least as wide as the thumb, or it's going to break.

3. Your goal is to remove the peel in one long, thick spiral from the top that you're started. Continue to go around the orange in circles like you did in Step 2, moving down slightly every time and moiniotring the thickness of the spiral. If it gets any thinner than your thumb, slow down, stick your thumb further under the orange peel, and resume. Make sure you never go too fast either, going fast or with a thin spiral are the two best ways to break the peel.

4. When you reach the nub on the bottom of the orange, let go of the peel and stick your thumb under the edge of the nub. Place your middle and forefinger on top of the nub and lever it off. You should have one long, continuous spiral of orange peel that is clean and oddly satisfying to produce. Very zen.

Thanks Yumi, hope you like it!

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2 Comments

After mastering this, you can try to peel a hard-boiled egg in one piece. Also very satisfying.

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