Unitasker Wednesday: The strawberry huller

Apparently, the strawberry needs to be hulled before one can really enjoy the juicy red fruit. I had no idea. I have been eating strawberries incorrectly all of my life. The HORROR!!

Now is my opportunity to overcome my ignorance and have the chance to really experience a well hulled strawberry with the Oxo Good Grips Strawberry Huller! I shall never eat the totally edible and scrumptious strawberry hull again!

You don’t like the Oxo option highlighted here? Well, there are no less than five different hulling options over at Amazon. I’m not experienced enough in my strawberry hulling abilities to give an educated recommendation as to which one hulls best, so maybe you should buy ALL of them to be safe!

**Each week, the Unitasker Wednesday column humorously pokes fun at the unnecessary, single-use items that manage to find their way into our homes.

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Posted by Matt on Jul 23, 2008 | Comments |

49 comments posted

  1. Posted by Chris Yi - 07/23/2008

    I can almost understand the notion of hulling, in and of itself; I don’t like having the stem involved if I’m going to blend strawberries into a smoothie, for example. Turns out, though, that I already have a strawberry huller; it’s called a knife.

    I love Unitasker Wednesdays :-) Good blog in general!

  2. Posted by Bobbi - 07/23/2008

    I agree with Chris.. I have a huller already, but I am not always comfortable cutting the tops off with a knife.

    However, this would have been so handy for my sister’s wedding. She decided the day before that she wanted fresh cut strawberries on her wedding cake. So, here was my grandmother, mother, sisters (including the bride) and I “hulling” (never knew that was the name of that) about 50 containers of strawberries. They were “hulled” and sliced.

    I wish I also had my handy Pampered Chef egg/fruit slicer, which may or may not be considered a unitasker, too.

  3. Posted by Harald - 07/23/2008

    A plastic drinking straw (pushed up from the bottom of the berry) works just as well…

  4. Posted by Mimi - 07/23/2008

    This year I made several dozen jars of strawberry jam with strawberries from our organic patch. I hulled each and every berry myself with a $1.50 stainless huller from the hardware store. I think if I had used a knife I’d still be sitting at the sink hulling those berries. Now I don’t know about the Oxo one pictured above, but in my case that $1.50 investment that takes up about 2″ of drawer space was worth much more than its cost.

  5. Posted by Megan - 07/23/2008

    @ Bobbi — I once tried to slice strawberries using my egg slicer (a vain attempt at salvaging it from the dreaded “unitasker” status). The poor egg slicer died a nasty death that day.

    I think that everyone should learn how to properly use knives. Whether your slicing, hulling, peeling or chopping, knowing how to use knives is important for safety, efficiency AND uncluttering! Plus, they’re much easier to clean than the gadgets are.

  6. Posted by amanda - 07/23/2008

    I use a grapefruit spoon to just scoop out the hull. Surprise, surprise, you can also use it (get this) to eat grapefruit! Crazy! So easy even a five year old can do it!

    http://www.kiddio.org

  7. Posted by Katie - 07/23/2008

    A small spoon will do the job as well.

  8. Posted by Maria in Iowa - 07/23/2008

    I have an old metal strawberry huller that came in a box of stuff at an auction. It’s worth its weight in gold. (It’s pretty light.) When you have to do a lot of them, FAST, and you don’t want waste, they are great.

    Oh, and an egg slicer works great as a mushroom slicer!

  9. Posted by Karen in Wichita - 07/23/2008

    A good strawberry huller *is* a worthwhile unitasker… small, fast, etc. Provided you eat enough strawberries, at least. Which, in season, we do.

    Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to find one like Mom’s, and a *bad* strawberry huller is worse than useless. I end up using a knife or my (well-washed!) fingernails (which, perhaps not coincidentally, is what a good strawberry huller is shaped roughly like).

    The OXO one looks like overkill, though. I generally love the Good Grips stuff, but if you need a Good Grip huller your strawberries are underripe.

  10. Posted by nobi yuno - 07/23/2008

    This is my first visit to this site. This is the first blog entry I have already read here. I already love you guys. My wife slowly accumulates this crap and I slowly hide it in trashcans in the garage to declutter the kitchen, and she never realizes it. We may need marriage counseling and I may need to respect her boundaries better, but at least we have an uncluttered kitchen.

  11. Posted by Melissa A. - 07/23/2008

    Actually my mother has the huller in the first link, she’s had it for years. It is very useful when you have to process a large quantity of strawberries, for jam, pies, freezing, etc. It’s small and doesn’t take up much space. Kind of surprised to see that here, actually. I can’t imagine hand hulling large batches of strawberries. No thanks.

  12. Posted by Michele - 07/23/2008

    Home canner here. If I found a great deal on strawberries and was facing having to hull several quarts in order to make jam, I’d appreciate a strawberry huller. It would probably reduce the time involved in prepping the berries by quite a bit. Also, it probably takes a smaller movement to hull the berries with this tool than it does when you’re using a knife — that would reduce the risk of repetitive stress injury symptoms. The right tool for the right job!

  13. Posted by Anne - 07/23/2008

    i didn’t even know strawberries had hulls,
    thank you for yet another unclutter-apedia moment.

    btw-I love the oatmeal in my rice cooker! Kids devoured it also!

  14. Posted by Eileen - 07/23/2008

    I once had the pleasure of eating fresh ripe strawberries that had been dipped in dark chocolate and whose centers were filled with cream. They were AMAZING! I figured that the creator of these delectable treats had spent so much time carefully removing the white thingies from the center (the hulls I guess), that I would never be able to make them myself due to lack of patience. I have since made chocolate dipped strawberries, but never tried to fill them with cream. With this gadget maybe I could do it! Yes it is a unitasker, but maybe worth having for things like this! I wish strawberries were still in season right now!

  15. Posted by Matt - 07/23/2008

    A lot of the OXO Good Grips stuff is overkill. I recently equipped a new kitchen when I moved from the UK to the US (I didn’t bother shipping my collection of junk from the UK). I bought several OXO things on recommendation, and I find them mostly to be oversized and of mediocre performance.

  16. Posted by Kit - 07/23/2008

    I agree with harold, I was taught to use a straw from the bottom up and it’s worked just fine for me!

  17. Posted by Amy - 07/23/2008

    I have one of these, homemade by my grandfather or great-grandfather. It’s a little cylinder of wood with a metal loop on one end.

    I never use it for hulling strawberries. I grew up doing that with a knife (though my grandmother preferred to use a fingernail, claiming you lose less berry that way).

    What it’s excellent for is pitting cherries! If you’re going to clean loads of cherries, or strawberries if you don’t clean them with a knife, then it’s a must.

  18. Posted by lantzilla - 07/23/2008

    Insert tip of paring knife. Twist strawberry in circle. Done.

  19. Posted by Tania - 07/23/2008

    Strawberries don’t need to be “hulled”… that is some foolishness. HaHaHahaHA!! Too funny… Just cut the top off and keep it moving…

  20. Posted by Deb - 07/23/2008

    Once again, I will lobby to keep a tomato shark on hand. It is a very small tool but does the job so well. I use it to remove the tomato core, thus saving the top slice of tomato. I also use it to core out onion stems and of course, it is fabulous on strawberry hulls.

    On occasion, I have used the tomato shark to remove soggy parts of nectarines and apples, to take eyes out of potatoes and to scoop tiny little bits of cheese, melon or banana for decorative uses.

    My tomato shark does not have a goofy strawberry shape on the handle. I was introduced to it when I worked at a Wendy’s and had to core cases of tomatoes each norning. I consider it safer than using a knife and fast as lightning!

  21. Posted by infmom - 07/23/2008

    When we find a good deal on flats of strawberries at one of the roadside stands, I really appreciate my strawberry huller. The huller may be useless if you’re only eating the berries a few at a time for dessert, but if you’re going to be making strawberry jam it’s a lifesaver.

    I’ve never seen a tomato shark, but based on everyone’s comments here it looks like it’s worth getting.

  22. Posted by infmom - 07/23/2008

    Oh, I forgot to add that my huller isn’t like an apple corer, it’s more like a gigantic set of tweezers that grabs the stem and leaves and scoops them both out together.

  23. Posted by jeramy - 07/23/2008

    oh, that’s what i need….one more crappy kitchen tool to clutter up my drawer. what’s the point of this blog again?

  24. Posted by Gabriel - 07/23/2008

    GRAPEFRUIT SPOON!

    Beats all commercial strawberry hullers - and you can use it to eat grapefruit! (that’s right Amanda!)

    But really, just pull the leaves off and eat the berry whole. True strawberry eaters don’t even notice the hull.

    p.s. jeramy - you’re an idiot.

  25. Posted by Karyn - 07/23/2008

    jeramy–read the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog entry. This is a tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic, ironic (pick your adjective) entry about a unitasker that is not generally ‘recommended’ by the writer.

  26. Posted by jeramy - 07/23/2008

    gabriel….it was a joke…

  27. Posted by Shalin - 07/23/2008

    This post is hilarious! thanks! :)

  28. Posted by Sheryl - 07/23/2008

    Now this is one unitasker that I do like; it bothers me to use a knife and cut off so much of the top. You can hull several quarts of berries in no time with one of these little babies, and they really don’t take up much room.

    And Matt - in defense of OXO Good Grips gadgets…while I will admit that they are a bit bulky, for someone with arthritis in their hands (like me), they’re a Godsend.

  29. Posted by Cecily T - 07/23/2008

    I just started cutting up strawberries for my 1-year-old a few months ago, and I never noticed how much tastier strawberries are without that white center. I’m torn…I usually just use a knife, but I do dislike cutting so much off the top.

  30. Posted by nobi yuno - 07/23/2008

    http://gizmodo.com/tag/sticky-situation/

  31. Posted by Cliff - 07/23/2008

    I bet you could use the strawberry-huller to punch cigars too … so it’s not really a uni-tasker, it’s a duo-tasker, right?

  32. Posted by Leigh Ann - 07/24/2008

    I got one free when I ordered some strawberry plants for my garden. It’s very small and lightweight, and I use it to quickly pinch out the leaves and hard part underneath. I used it this evening to make dessert. Gets the job done fast, even if it is a unitasker. I could use a knife, but I’d waste some of the fruit and I’d probably not be as fast.

  33. Posted by Kevin - 07/24/2008

    My trick is I grab a big box of strawberries, and I sit on the front porch and start eating the stems. Pretty soon, a neighborhood kid will come up and ask me what I’m doing.

    “Why, I’m just enjoying the greatest snack of them all! You mean you eat the nasty red part? I tell you what, these stems are the bee’s knees!”

    The kid will then sit next to me and start eating the stems, all the while praising their virtues. Soon some other kids will join him, all of them very enthused about eating strawberry stems. At this point, I go inside and watch a movie. An hour and a half later, I come back out, and find all my strawberries de-hulled.

  34. Posted by Megan - 07/24/2008

    @Kevin… hilarious.

    I don’t understand why everyone is saying that using a knife wastes fruit and is not fast. Using a knife does not meant that we must resort to simply cutting off the top. As lantzilla pointed out earlier:

    “Insert tip of paring knife. Twist strawberry in circle. Done.”

    Quick and clean. One swift motion.

  35. Posted by Michele - 07/24/2008

    If the strawberry is ripe - why eat anything but ripe fruit - a twist of the stem will remove the hull. And that’s how you know it’s ripe - a twist of the stem will remove the hull. Enjoy!

  36. Posted by jocelyn - 07/24/2008

    I agree, Megan. The knife is fast and easy and done the way you describe is different from and far better than wastefully lopping the top off.

  37. Posted by Anita - 07/24/2008

    I actually saw this gadget the other day in a magazine and thought to myself, “I should really email Matt.” Funny that now, just days after, here it is in the Unitasker column. Thanks for the laugh!

  38. Posted by Eric - 07/24/2008

    Huh, I always thought the hull makes a great handle, and if i’m preparing them in a dessert or something, I do have a paring knife (and can use it without maiming myself).

    FYI, never hull a strawberry until the last possible moment. Hulled ones don’t keep well.

  39. Posted by Jen - 07/24/2008

    Too funny. A while back when you asked for a unitasker we thought was worthwhile, this was the first thing that came to mind!

    I have this one: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....ref=nosim/

    I find, unlike some other commenters, that I waste a lot less strawberry this way than with a knife.

    And I do need to hull my strawberries for desserts and because the kids won’t eat them with the stems on. :)

  40. Posted by Designer - 07/25/2008

    This is my favorite, most usable kitchen gadget ever!

  41. Posted by Barb - 07/26/2008

    As a strawberry lover, and inflammatory arthritis sufferer, any gadget that makes life easier, reduces pain, and allows one to enjoy the little things in life is not clutter, it’s a blessing.

  42. Posted by Boinkie - 07/26/2008

    Yes, more clutter. our cook just uses a ten inch carving knife for all and sundry…

    But for restaurants or others who have to serve large numbers, it is useful.

    And a lot of these gadgets help the elderly and those with arthritis…

  43. Posted by Erin Doland - 07/27/2008

    As we have said a million times … yes, we acknowledge that some people may find a Unitasker object useful. However, for the majority of people, the objects will be clutter.

  44. Posted by Michael - 07/27/2008

    If you need a strawberry huller, your strawberries aren’t ripe yet.

  45. Posted by Anon Y. Mouse - 07/28/2008

    I used to work @ a large retail chain i occasionally see mentioned on this site. When we’d get couples into the store to start a bridal registry, we’d push these unitaskers on them so hard, it was almost scary. Our “consultants” were instructed to persuade our couples to not even look @ the wall o’ kitchen gadgets - to instead pick out a line they like (Good Grips, Calphalon, etc.) and the consultant would “add everything they need” to their registry for ‘em. Saves time, right? You have a whole store-ful of things to register for, why spend time deciding what gadgets you need (or will ever use? You know you need ‘em all…

    Drove me frickin’ crazy. Maybe if you eat a lot of seafood you *do* need things like shrimp deveiners - I wouldn’t know since i’m veggie, maybe they’re more useful than i think? But does *everyone* need one? No!

    /end retail-job rant

  46. Posted by Margaret - 07/28/2008

    Actually, Erin, you don’t acknowledge that some people may find a Unitasker object useful. At the bottom of each Unitasker post is a disclaimer, but it still calls the items unneccessary without any mention of the group of people who might actually need the device.

    Maybe the statement is buried somewhere else on the site, but if you want to stop the flow of defensive responses (judging by your whiny “as we have said a million times”), a good starting place would be the disclaimer.

  47. Posted by Erin Doland - 07/28/2008

    @Margaret –

    First off:
    http://unclutterer.com/2008/03.....explained/

    Second:
    If you’re a long-time reader of this site, then you know that I AM HANDICAPPED (yes, I qualify for the blue sticker on my car). A lot of the time, I am one of the “group of people who might actually need the device” and I still think the posts are hysterical. Lighten up! They’re jokes.

  48. Posted by Michael G - 07/31/2008

    So you’re probably not going to like the Progressive Avocado Slicer I got you for the holidays, even though it simultaneously gets the fruit out of the peel and cuts it into perfect parallel little strips for your turkey sandwich with bacon and swiss. I debated and almost got you the Tovolo since the editorial review calls it “a real eye catcher”; or the Norpro Stainless Steel Avocado Slicer, because I think it sounds cool with “stainless steel” in the name.

    And then I wondered if you wouldn’t also want the Van Vacter Avocado Knife, Black and Stainless Steel. It’s a whole different approach to the avocado. And it is specially engineered for lifting the pit out. And I wondered if you migth enjoy a hanging basket to put all your avocado utensils in…and now I find out that you just don’t like these cutting-edge culinary marvels. You’re so hard to shop for.

    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb.....1&y=18

  49. Posted by Michael G - 07/31/2008

    Well how ’bout the Oxo Good Grips Mango Splitter then?

    http://www.amazon.com/Oxo-Good.....mp;sr=1-10

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