There are few things that are quite as shiok as biting into a cold, juicy, and sweet watermelon on a hot day. And just our luck — watermelon season occurs during the hottest months of the year, so you can expect to have the sweetest watermelons during this time. The only hassle? Chopping the hefty fruit into serving sizes. Thankfully, the Internet is a treasure trove of life hacks, including fruit cutting hacks that will save you a ton of time and effort. Read on to find out how to slice fruits like watermelon, pineapple, and dragonfruit without making a juicy mess!
If there’s one fruit we dread cutting, it would be watermelon. It’s big, chunky and messy to get into wedges. This unconventional hack only requires dental floss to neatly slice up a watermelon.
Our verdict: Pass
This dental floss hack is definitely a game-changer. Although it started off as a slight struggle, slicing it up after that was easy and fast. Just a few practice runs in and you’ll be a pro.
You’ll want to make sure you get the dental floss to cut as close to the rind as possible, otherwise, a substantial amount of flesh will be wasted.
This hack was created by TikTok user @marg13d, calling it ‘Marg’s Dinosaur Egg Avocado Hack”. To help your avocados last longer, dig out the avocado flesh using a spoon like how people who eat soft boiled eggs take the tip off and eat it right off the shell. As the remaining avocado flesh is protected by the skin, she could keep the avocado in the fridge for a week without the flesh turning brown.
Our verdict: Pass
For this hack, you’ll need to get ripened avocados. Cut off the top with a spoon and scoop the desired amount of flesh out, keeping the rest sealed up in a bag in the fridge.
After sitting for a day in the fridge, it still looks fresh without any browning. Check out the original TikTok here!
We know how hard it is to get a good squeeze out of a lime. To make it worth the effort, the hack requires placing the lime in the microwave for 20 seconds, rolling it on the countertop before slicing it in half to get the juice out.
Our verdict: Pass
As odd as it is to place a lime in the microwave, this hack actually worked out pretty well, but we wouldn’t go as far as to say you’d get “five times more juice”, as stated in the video.
We compared the difference between squeezing the lime with and without microwaving it. For a fairer comparison, we chose two limes that are about the same size.
Without microwaving the lime:
After microwaving the lime:
While placing a lime in the microwave sounds strange, this hack softens the lime so squeezing it is a lot easier.
The lime that was popped into the microwave required less strength to squeeze, but the amount of juice it yielded as compared to the other was almost the same.
Will we use this hack again? Yes, as it requires only half the strength.
This TikTok user shared a fast and easy way to remove the skin of an orange. Simply cut off the top (stem-end) of the orange, score the skin from top to blossom-end then peel the skin and you’ll be done in a minute.
Our verdict: Pass
I usually cut oranges in slices with the skin on as peeling the skin would sometimes cause damage to my nails. With this hack, peeling the skin off was easier than expected, especially with the help of the scoring.
This pineapple peeling hack went viral back in 2019 but it has recently resurfaced in the TikTok community. Instead of cutting the skin and slicing it diagonally to remove the eyes, remove the crown in a zig-zag pattern following the individual berries or ‘fruitlets’ (the squares seen on the skin). Peel off the fruitlets and you can enjoy it in chunks.
Our verdict: Pass, but still troublesome
The idea of peeling pineapple and eating them in chunks is novel, but it still requires as much effort to get the fruitlets out, especially if the pineapple you have isn’t entirely ripe.
To cut down on time, I’d just buy pre-cut pineapples from the supermarket, or canned ones if I’m making a dessert with it.
If you’re putting together a fruit salad and want your kiwis to be in neat cubes, these methods will come in handy. This first one involves cutting the top and bottom of the fruit and then making an incision on the skin and peeling it off with a spoon.
This other hack we found involves cutting the kiwi in half and inserting a whisk in the middle, twisting it sideways and four perfect cubes will effortlessly fall off.
Our verdict: Pass
Comparing the two, the whisk method is easier and faster as it completely cleans out the kiwi without needing to scrape off any remaining flesh. If you don’t have a whisk at home, the first hack works just as well too!
Cut the ends of the dragon fruit, then slice it in half before scoring the fruit vertically and diagonally. Run the knife around the edge of the flesh and dig in with a fork.
Our verdict: Fail
We concluded that the method was not effective as not all the flesh would come out and there would be wasted fruit.
This peach cutting hack requires cutting the peach lengthwise from top to bottom, then slicing it into half and twisting it slightly to release the cubes.
Our verdict: Half successful
It is good for half the peach, but the seed from the other half does not come out as easily. So we wouldn’t consider this a successful hack.
Sometimes a chunk of the strawberry is removed while cutting away the top portion of the strawberry while removing the leaves.
Try this instead: use a drinking straw and run it through from bottom of the berry to the top, to make the leaves “pop out”. It is an easier way to remove the leaves and it saves your berries from losing too much of its flesh in the process.
Our verdict: Pass
The hack was a success, and it is quite easy to do as long as your straw doesn’t bend.
Some of us just prefer grapes without the skin, but it can be a chore to individually remove the skin from a bunch of grapes one by one. To do this, you’ll need your grapes to be frozen in order for them to pop out like the one in the video. Then, use a toothpick and cut the grape skin lengthwise, pull down the skin and give the grape a light squeeze to get it out.
Our verdict: Fail
We tried several times and only managed to peel off a bit of the skin but failed to get the flesh of the grape to pop out.
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Text and Gifs: Melissa Goh, Additional reporting: Seow Kai Lun, Trini Ng & Tan Gin Yee
This post first appeared on AsiaOne.