June 20, 2024, 7:06 am | Read time: 2 minutes
Do you eat your peach straight from your hand or do you slice it first? There’s a method to cut the fruit without it getting mushy or leaving a puddle of juice on the kitchen counter.
There are many ways to slice a peach. The most common is to cut it in half and twist the halves in opposite directions to remove the pit. However, with less ripe peaches, this can be tedious, while with ripe ones, it often results in a mushy mess. There’s a method suitable for both ripeness levels that allows you to cut the peach without much effort or mess.
Cutting a Peach Easily and Neatly
You’ll need a sharp knife to cut the peach and a bowl to catch the finished pieces. Then you’re ready to start:
- First, make a cut around the middle of the peach as if you were going to halve it.
- Repeat the same cut, offset by 90 degrees, so you end up with a cross-cut pattern and four elongated quarters.
- Then, make two more diagonal cuts lengthwise, so the peach is divided into eighths.
- Finally, rotate the peach 90 degrees and make another cut around it, halving the existing pieces.
The flesh should now be loosely attached to the pit. Hold the cut peach over the bowl and gently push the pieces off the pit. The result is cleanly separated, bite-sized pieces in the bowl and the pit, free of flesh, in your hand.
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This cutting method works just as well for nectarines or other stone fruits of similar size and texture. The riper the fruits, the easier it is to pull the pieces off the pit. You can see the entire guide step-by-step in the video above in the article.