This TikTok Hack Will Change The Way You Peel Potatoes

Cooking, even for the most adept, can be a laborious process. Those who cook for themselves regularly can attest to that. If you're prepping ingredients like vegetables, the cleaning and chopping alone can take a good chunk of time, which is why Epicurious created a step-by-step how-to for each veggie and the best (and fastest) way to break it down. Some of the tips include: gently tapping a garlic clove with your knife for an easy-peel alternative, and cutting off the root end of a shallot, scoring down the full length of the veg with a knife, and peeling off the outer layer. These might seem like minor things but if you've ever made something starchy, especially something like mashed squash or potatoes, you know how precious those extra moments can be.

But what if we told you you've been peeling potatoes wrong your entire life and there's a much quicker way of doing it? One creator on TikTok, the platform provider of so many amazing life hackers, like the one helping us find the knife under the Nutella lid, or explaining how to properly open a beer, has a great and oh-so-simple hack for potato peeling that you've likely never considered (via Cosmopolitan).

TikTok user ThatDudeCanCook highlights quite possibly the most innovative method to peeling potatoes — and no, it's not One Good Thing by Jillee's blog idea of boiling it in its skin and giving it an ice bath so it slides off. This TikTok method involves jamming a fork into the top of the potato to stabilize it then going to town! This gives you the ability to peel lightning fast since you're not worried about cutting your fingers.

Is the method worth trying? Well, it depends on who you ask. Spoon University praised its effectiveness, while Tablespoon thinks "the best potatoes to boil are typically thin-skinned, low-starch, waxy varieties," which don't require any peeling, rendering this hack pointless.

But next time you have to peel a potato, why not grab a fork and see what you think of it yourself? You never know, it might make your job way less painful and save your headaches for more important things — like finding a proper substitute when you run out of flour right before a bake sale.