Social media has a way of making you rethink everything, sending you into a tailspin about whether or not you’re using anything the way it’s intended. Now, a recent viral video may make you look at a tool sitting in your kitchen drawer in a totally different way.
On April 3, TikTok user Jennifer Abernathy, who goes by @jenniabs3 on the platform, posted an 18-second video that quickly went viral, garnering over 11.5 million views. In it, the content creator shares the way she uses a potato peeler — and the simple technique she employs to peel her tubers in a flash.
“Fun kitchen facts,” says Abernathy in the clip. “Did you know the reason why potato peelers swivel back and forth is so that you can not only go down but forward when you’re peeling so that you can peel the entire thing super fast? Without having to actually lift up the peeler off of the vegetable.”
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In the clip, Abernathy sways her swivel peeler back and forth, almost completely peeling a sweet potato by the end of the clip.
“Do you peel the old school way like this or do you swivel back and forth? Let me know in the comments,” Abernathy concludes the video.
Reactions to her video ranged from astonishment to disbelief, with TikTok users leaving nearly 7,000 comments under the short-yet-effective clip.
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“This is why we need cooking classes back in high school! How am I just finding this out at 26,” commented one person.
“Seriously questioning everything I do in life right now,” wrote another.
“Tik Tok needs to get a teacher of the year award or something, cause no….no I did not know that,” commented yet another.
Still, some folks disagreed with Abernathy as to the intended point of the swivel.
“Could it just be for right and left handed ?” asked another commenter, to which Abernathy replied, “Yes. Two things can be correct at once.”
“Potato peeler swivel back-and-forth because some people are left-handed and some people are right handed that’s the reason!” exclaimed another.
Abernathy posted another clip in response to a naysayer who commented, “Like damn ok I’II leave more comments so ppl don’t slice their wrists open with ur terrible advice,” doubling down on her technique.
“O.K., the reason why it’s literally impossible to cut yourself by doing it my way is because you’re never really lifting the blade off the potato so you’re not actually putting the blade in a position to cut you,” Abernathy says in the clip.
All the attention on her video — both positive and negative — is blowing Abernathy's mind, she says, because she's been using this technique since she was little.
“My mom taught me how to cook when I was younger, and it’s just how we peeled potatoes," Abernathy tells TODAY.com.
So, have we all been using a potato peeler incorrectly our entire lives? To find out for sure, we reached out to Kuhn Rikon, a maker of kitchen tools and accessories — like vegetable peelers.
“Some peelers have ‘swivel’ in the name. This really refers to the blade being able to swivel or rock back and forth,” Melissa Ledbetter, director of marketing and e-commerce at Kuhn Rikon US, told TODAY.com. “Most peelers have swivel blades. This helps the blade travel over curves in food and adjust to continue peeling without having to change the angle at the angle they are holding the peeler. Some can peel back and forth but that’s not truly why they swivel.”
As for Abernathy, she's taking her virality in stride, saying that more cooking tips may be forthcoming, but since she usually realizes them as she’s cooking, she's not sure what's next. “I don’t have a running list … the answer is probably yes, but I just don’t know what it is yet.”
This article first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
