If You Have Pounds Of Potatoes To Peel For Thanksgiving, This Hack Is For You

The holiday season is almost upon us, and once Halloween is done, Thanksgiving will be just around the corner. In the next few months, many of us will be preparing plenty of potatoes for holiday dinners ... which means a lot of peeling. If you want to make your Thanksgiving dinner prep easier this holiday season, we have the perfect hack to make all that dreary peeling a breeze, and it's waiting in your utensil drawer.

As seen on social media, to make your holiday potato peeling that much easier, simply stick a fork deep into one end of the spud and peel it vertically, down from the fork towards the far end. This way, you can peel faster and more easily rotate your potato, all with far less worry of nicking your fingers. Once the bulk of the potato is peeled, remove the fork and quickly peel the remaining end. If you do it right, you'll have a perfectly peeled potato ready for mashing or frying, and all you have to worry about is avoiding common potato cooking mistakes like cranking the oven too high.

This hack works best on medium- to large-sized potatoes because it gives you more room to make long, smooth strokes with the peeler, which is key for fast and easy peeling. You'll also likely find more success with longer spuds than shorter, rounder ones. And of course, ensure your potatoes are fresh, as green potatoes are not safe to eat because they contain a substance called solanine, which is poisonous to humans.

If you want to make your Thanksgiving prep a little easier, we have some more tips for you when it comes to this hack. First off — and we don't mean to insult you — don't try this with a cooked potato. You need the potato to be steady and stable to effectively peel it this way, and even if you use the best spud for mashed potatoes, it can break up and fall apart inside when you stick a big fork in it and start jostling it around. For best results, peel and then cook when using this hack.

Next, pay attention to the shape of your potato. Since you're trying to use smooth, fluid strokes, a spud with a lot of bumps or curves won't go as quickly as a smooth one. You can still use this hack on a bumpy potato; just be prepared to work a little more and don't expect to have the same quick peeling time that you would with a smoother spud.

Finally, don't be afraid to stick your fork in deep. You're aiming for stability, so the deeper into the potato you stab the fork, the more stable things will be. This is another reason it's better to use bigger potatoes, because they give you more room to do just that. Finally, consider using a fork with a wooden handle or another material with more texture than metal to give you a better grip and more stability.