The One Kitchen Tool Ina Garten Finds Herself Replacing Often

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Most of the time, when we select a kitchen tool we usually think of its lifespan as a key factor in our purchasing decisions. After all, it seems silly to buy something we know we'll have to replace soon. Celebrity chef and lifestyle maven Ina Garten revealed to Food and Wine that she has one particular piece of cookware that she does change out often — and her reason for doing so actually makes perfect sense.

Garten says she makes a habit of replacing her vegetable peelers on a regular basis. That's because over time, they can become dull and rusty, which renders them essentially useless. Plus, the Food and Drug Administration classifies rust as "not a food safe material" which means any flaking onto your raw veggies is obviously not an ideal scenario. From personal experience, I've found that dull vegetable peelers require more force to work properly. And in pushing down harder, you can unintentionally peel away too much perfectly good vegetable matter underneath. There's no point in wasting perfectly good carrot bits, right?

What's good about vegetable peelers, at least from a budgetary standpoint, is they're nice and cheap. After all, they're really just a handle attached to a thin metal blade. You can get a three-pack of them for under $20. If those multi-packs are on sale, you might even be able to get them for $10. 

Frankly, I don't use my vegetable peeler that much, which means I can probably get away with replacing mine every few years (unless it rusts quickly), but if you notice yours is struggling with basic functions, it might be time to swap it out. A sharp peeler means you can do things like use broccoli and cauliflower stems and ensure you use the entire stalk of asparagus (including the woody bottom portion) by peeling off the tough skin. Being able to stretch your groceries is always good. If you think about it that way, the few bucks you save on food waste can cover the cost of a new peeler year after year.