The Kitchen Tool That Seems Useful But Is Actually A Waste Of Money

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When future historians examine the list of the most iconic kitchen products and appliances of all time, we doubt the Jobede Rubber Peeler Gloves or Emson Tater Mitts will be one of them. The idea behind this kitchen gadget is simple and appealing. Forget the outdated idea of traditional, time-consuming vegetable peelers that you could cut yourself using. Instead, use some gritty rubber gloves to literally rub the peels off your potatoes. This seems useful in practice, but in reality, it is actually a huge waste of money.

The whole point of this tool is to make peeling easier, but they are hardly the kind of chic kitchen gadget you'll actually want to display. Also known as potato peeling mitts, these long rubber gloves feature grippy, gravel-like peeling knobs built into the fingers and palms. These elevated nubs create an abrasive surface for scrubbing potato skins away.

What can sometimes happen with a vegetable peeler or knife is that you take off more of the potato than you really want. The gloves, meanwhile, market themselves as being able to peel the thinnest possible layer to give you more potato for your buck. The JOBEDE gloves can be purchased on Amazon for $8.99, while the Tater Mitts run at an eyebrow-raising $19.99. Based on the reviews for both of these products ... let's just say don't waste a single penny on these, frankly, pointless kitchen tools.

The main reason why potato peeling gloves are completely pointless is that they solve a problem that never existed to begin with. Potato peelers are an incredibly easy and efficient way to remove skins from a potato. Amazon reviews for the JOBEDE gloves make this case clearly. "This product does not quickly remove the skin from anything. I tried a potato and an apple," one reviewer noted, adding, "Had to use the glove like a grater to even start to get the skin off of the potato." Meanwhile, another one wrote, "They also shed little bits of plastic or rubber or whatever it is they're made out of, so now you're eating plastic."

North Alabama's WHNT News 19 had similar things to say about the Tater Mitts. Their reviewer pointed out the need to cook the potatoes before they could be peeled with the gloves. The resulting texture left something to be desired, and the gloves weren't able to get some of the eyes out of the potatoes for a smooth finish. Unless you're preparing a particularly large batch of potatoes, peeling with a traditional vegetable peeler, they noted, was quicker and more practical.

That said, there is a mess-free potato peeling hack that is faster than using a vegetable peeler. Just gently score the surface of the potatoes with a knife and boil them whole. After boiling, the skins should slip right off, and you can toss them into your compost bin to be turned into fertilizer.