I've been eating winter vegetables lately,
novel for me; rutabagas, parsnips, turnips.
The problem is, it's laborious peeling them,
I'm lazy and lack patience.

Question: is it necessary to peel them, if
they're going to get cooked anyhow? i.e. steaming,
almost always. Is there any problem with leaving
the skin, eat the whole veggie?


--
Rich

RichD wrote:
>
> Question: is it necessary to peel them, if
> they're going to get cooked anyhow? i.e. steaming,
> almost always. Is there any problem with leaving
> the skin, eat the whole veggie?

If it's not tough or otherwise unpalatable, no problem.
Washing and if necessary brushing will remove adherent
dirt, which has a terrible flavor. If there are spots
that resist scrubbing off, those I would cut out.

On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:46:59 -0800 (PST), RichD
> wrote:

>
>I've been eating winter vegetables lately,
>novel for me; rutabagas, parsnips, turnips.
>The problem is, it's laborious peeling them,
>I'm lazy and lack patience.
>
>Question: is it necessary to peel them, if
>they're going to get cooked anyhow? i.e. steaming,
>almost always. Is there any problem with leaving
>the skin, eat the whole veggie?

I rarely peel root veggies, as long as they're not damaged/spoiled -
I usually leave the skins on.

RichD wrote:
>
> I've been eating winter vegetables lately,
> novel for me; rutabagas, parsnips, turnips.
> The problem is, it's laborious peeling them,
> I'm lazy and lack patience.
>
> Question: is it necessary to peel them, if
> they're going to get cooked anyhow? i.e. steaming,
> almost always. Is there any problem with leaving
> the skin, eat the whole veggie?

To me turnip and rutabagas skins taste very nasty, and rutabagas skins
have a very tough texture. Both are cruciferous vegetables members of
the same group as cabbage so the entire plant can be eaten so it's only
an issue of flavor and texture not a health issue.

Parsnips are one of my few very strong food dislikes so I would not try
them with skins. My best guess is since they have thin skins like
carrots you won't be able to tell that the skin was not removed. I most
applications I can't tell if the skin was removed from a carrot as far
as flavor and texture is concerned, just an appearance issue.

On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:02:02 +1100, Jeßus > wrote:

> On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:46:59 -0800 (PST), RichD
> > wrote:
>
> >
> >I've been eating winter vegetables lately,
> >novel for me; rutabagas, parsnips, turnips.
> >The problem is, it's laborious peeling them,
> >I'm lazy and lack patience.
> >
> >Question: is it necessary to peel them, if
> >they're going to get cooked anyhow? i.e. steaming,
> >almost always. Is there any problem with leaving
> >the skin, eat the whole veggie?
>
> I rarely peel root veggies, as long as they're not damaged/spoiled -
> I usually leave the skins on.

I must be hyper-sensitive to the bitterness in carrot skins because I
like them better when the skin is at least scraped off with the back
of a knife.

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On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:46:41 +0000 (UTC), Doug Freyburger
> wrote:

> Parsnips are one of my few very strong food dislikes so I would not try
> them with skins.

Have you ever used parsnip in a winter vegetable/bean soup? A little
goes a long way, but I think it adds some umami/je ne sais quoi to the
stoup.

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On 26/01/2012 2:46 PM, Doug Freyburger wrote:

> Parsnips are one of my few very strong food dislikes so I would not try
> them with skins. My best guess is since they have thin skins like
> carrots you won't be able to tell that the skin was not removed. I most
> applications I can't tell if the skin was removed from a carrot as far
> as flavor and texture is concerned, just an appearance issue.

I hated hated hated parsnips until I tried them roasted. I still hate
boiled parsnips, but I really like them roasted.

sf wrote:
>
> I must be hyper-sensitive to the bitterness in carrot skins because I
> like them better when the skin is at least scraped off with the back
> of a knife.

Until I was in my 20's, I could taste that
weird tang in carrot skins and always peeled
them. At some point I must have gotten lazy
and stopped peeling them, but I don't sense
that flavor anymore. I ate at least a pound
(probably closer to two) of carrots today,
all unpeeled, and they were just fine.

On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:00:27 -0800, sf > wrote:

>On Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:02:02 +1100, Jeßus > wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:46:59 -0800 (PST), RichD
>> > wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >I've been eating winter vegetables lately,
>> >novel for me; rutabagas, parsnips, turnips.
>> >The problem is, it's laborious peeling them,
>> >I'm lazy and lack patience.
>> >
>> >Question: is it necessary to peel them, if
>> >they're going to get cooked anyhow? i.e. steaming,
>> >almost always. Is there any problem with leaving
>> >the skin, eat the whole veggie?
>>
>> I rarely peel root veggies, as long as they're not damaged/spoiled -
>> I usually leave the skins on.

I should add... or bad tasting, i.e, swedes/rutabagas...

>I must be hyper-sensitive to the bitterness in carrot skins because I
>like them better when the skin is at least scraped off with the back
>of a knife.

Not something I have a problem with, thankfully
I guess the older/bigger the carrot, the more bitter they would be,
you may not have the same problem with baby carrots?

On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:23:06 +1100, Jeßus > wrote:

> >I must be hyper-sensitive to the bitterness in carrot skins because I
> >like them better when the skin is at least scraped off with the back
> >of a knife.
>
> Not something I have a problem with, thankfully
> I guess the older/bigger the carrot, the more bitter they would be,
> you may not have the same problem with baby carrots?

As far as I know "baby" carrots come already peeled here.

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On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:46:33 -0800, sf > wrote:

>On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:23:06 +1100, Jeßus > wrote:
>
>> >I must be hyper-sensitive to the bitterness in carrot skins because I
>> >like them better when the skin is at least scraped off with the back
>> >of a knife.
>>
>> Not something I have a problem with, thankfully
>> I guess the older/bigger the carrot, the more bitter they would be,
>> you may not have the same problem with baby carrots?
>
>As far as I know "baby" carrots come already peeled here.

Good God...

On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:26:29 +1100, Jeßus > wrote:

> On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:46:33 -0800, sf > wrote:
>
> >On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:23:06 +1100, Jeßus > wrote:
> >
> >> >I must be hyper-sensitive to the bitterness in carrot skins because I
> >> >like them better when the skin is at least scraped off with the back
> >> >of a knife.
> >>
> >> Not something I have a problem with, thankfully
> >> I guess the older/bigger the carrot, the more bitter they would be,
> >> you may not have the same problem with baby carrots?
> >
> >As far as I know "baby" carrots come already peeled here.
>
> Good God...

and they aren't really baby carrots either. From what I've read they
are big carrots that were whittled down.

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On 1/27/2012 1:44 PM, sf wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:26:29 +1100, > wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:46:33 -0800, > wrote:
>>
>>> On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:23:06 +1100, > wrote:
>>>
>>>>> I must be hyper-sensitive to the bitterness in carrot skins because I
>>>>> like them better when the skin is at least scraped off with the back
>>>>> of a knife.
>>>>
>>>> Not something I have a problem with, thankfully
>>>> I guess the older/bigger the carrot, the more bitter they would be,
>>>> you may not have the same problem with baby carrots?
>>>
>>> As far as I know "baby" carrots come already peeled here.
>>
>> Good God...
>
> and they aren't really baby carrots either. From what I've read they
> are big carrots that were whittled down.
>

Near as I can tell, they're broken tips or maybe the waste products of
making peas and carrots. My guess is they stick the pieces in a big
drums and process them like rocks being tumbled.

dsi1 > wrote:

>On 1/27/2012 1:44 PM, sf wrote:
>> On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:26:29 +1100, > wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:46:33 -0800, > wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:23:06 +1100, > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>> I must be hyper-sensitive to the bitterness in carrot skins because I
>>>>>> like them better when the skin is at least scraped off with the back
>>>>>> of a knife.
>>>>>
>>>>> Not something I have a problem with, thankfully
>>>>> I guess the older/bigger the carrot, the more bitter they would be,
>>>>> you may not have the same problem with baby carrots?
>>>>
>>>> As far as I know "baby" carrots come already peeled here.
>>>
>>> Good God...
>>
>> and they aren't really baby carrots either. From what I've read they
>> are big carrots that were whittled down.
>>
>
>Near as I can tell, they're broken tips or maybe the waste products of
>making peas and carrots. My guess is they stick the pieces in a big
>drums and process them like rocks being tumbled.

That would be real inefficient-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNy94...eature=related
Producepedia.com: How baby carrots are made

And baby carrots *used* to be a real gourmet food. My garden
doesn't do root crops well, but my old garden did & I used to plant
lots of carrots and eat them *way* before their time. Yummy,
sweet, tender-- no comparison to a mature carrot-- let alone a mature
carrot that has been as abused as those 'baby' carrots.

Jim

Jim Elbrecht wrote:
>

> And baby carrots *used* to be a real gourmet food. My garden
> doesn't do root crops well, but my old garden did & I used to plant
> lots of carrots and eat them *way* before their time. Yummy,
> sweet, tender-- no comparison to a mature carrot-- let alone a mature
> carrot that has been as abused as those 'baby' carrots.
>

Those fake baby carrots aren't bad but nothing like the real ones. I can
only grow things on my back balcony in somewhat shallow pots. I grow
carrots in the spring and due to the container size, I only get baby
carrots. They are good. It's an annual battle here though....I have to
pull them before the annoying squirrels dig them up.

Gary

On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:51:11 -0800, Dan Abel > wrote:

>In article >,
> Jeßus > wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:46:33 -0800, sf > wrote:
>>
>> >On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:23:06 +1100, Jeßus > wrote:
>> >
>> >> >I must be hyper-sensitive to the bitterness in carrot skins because I
>> >> >like them better when the skin is at least scraped off with the back
>> >> >of a knife.
>> >>
>> >> Not something I have a problem with, thankfully
>> >> I guess the older/bigger the carrot, the more bitter they would be,
>> >> you may not have the same problem with baby carrots?
>> >
>> >As far as I know "baby" carrots come already peeled here.
>>
>> Good God...
>
>Most "baby" carrots in the US, are really full size carrots that are
>broken and cracked. They go in a machine that grinds off the bad parts
>and leaves something that *looks* like a baby carrot.

Amazing that they would go to all that bother when you could simply
grow the things, that would surely have to be cheaper, you'd think?
But then, if it were I'm sure they'd do just that.

Either way, I hope they make it clear on the packaging exactly what it
is. If that was tried here in Australia, I don't think they would be
in business for very long!