Test Kitchen tips: Peeling peaches and stone fruits

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Because peach skins can be overly tough for certain dishes, recipes sometimes call for peeling peaches before using them in pies and cobblers.

There’s an easy way to peel them -- and the method works for peeling many fruits and vegetables. Simply mark an ‘x’ on the bottom of the fruit, dunk it in boiling water to loosen the skin (about 30 seconds for a ripe peach, slightly longer if the peach is somewhat firm), then chill the fruit in an ice bath to cool. The skin should come off easily.

Continue reading the step-by-step below to see how easy the process is; we demonstrate using a tomato, but the peeling method is the same.

If you have any kitchen tips or questions you’d like me to explore, leave a comment below or shoot me an e-mail at noelle.carter@latimes.com.

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Top photo: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times. Step-by-step photos below: Noelle Carter / Los Angeles Times

Step 1: Mark an ‘X’ at the bottom of a tomato, just through the skin. Step 2: Submerge the tomato in a pan of boiling water to loosen the skin. You do not want to cook the tomato.

Step 3: The skin should start to peel away from the ‘X’ after about 30 seconds. As soon as the skin is loosened, immediately remove the tomato to a bowl of ice water to chill.

Step 4: Peel the skin away from the tomato using your fingers or a knife. The skin should peel easily.

Step 5: Slice the top and bottom off the tomato.

Step 6: Slice along the length of the tomato on one side, then lay the tomato on its side on a cutting board. Insert the knife, and run it along the inside of the tomato, where the flesh meets the seeds, to core and seed.