Do you remove the skin from apples and pears before eating them?

No, I’m not a savage.

What? No.

”Cucumbers? Zucchini? Eggplant?”
– No, no, no.

I remove the skin from bananas, butternut squash, garlic, oranges, nectarines and some but not all potatoes and yams in some recipes.

I will sometimes remove the skins from cucumbers, but if I’m slicing them thinly (which I often do) then I do not peel them. I also do not usually remove the peel of a nectarine, although there are some varieties whose peel can be quite sour so removing it is necessary.

No, I can’t think of a reason to remove the skins from apples and pears. I’m with @Zaku about most of the others. I will add to the do peel list: avocados, hard squashes, and melons.

Right, and tangerines, kiwi fruit, and mangoes…

No. Not apples, not pears, not cucumbers.

I remember when I was little, my grandfather said that the skin of a cucumber is the part that gets the sun, therefore has more nutrition. I don’t know if that’s true, and that’s not the reason why I don’t remove the cucumber skin. I just feel like it’s more roughage by leaving it on, so I do.

I’m with all of you. A friend told me several months ago that she peels her apples before eating and I couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe I don’t. For me, the skin is part of the snap or crunch biting into it. Removing skin I relate to very young children who only want colorless food. No crust on bread, no skin on fruit, and mainly want pasta, chicken, and potatoes.

Last night I was watching something on TV and a woman removed the skin from a pear, and it triggered my memory that my MIL years ago was preparing a pear to serve, and she started to remove the skin, and I stopped her for my slices.

I think the nutrition is mostly in the skin also. I’m not sure of it, but since that’s where most of the color is, I assume that’s where the vitamins and minerals are. Maybe potassium. Is in the flesh part, that would make sense.

Eggplant I do take off about half the skin.

Cucumbers, my husband likes no skin, so I peel away half, often I eat what I peeled away for him. He’s now used to having some skin on the cucumbers. I do peel the skin on cucumbers completely off when they have that waxy coating on them. Gross. Why do they do that?

When I peel potatoes for mashed potatoes I often sauté the skins in oil with salt to taste.

I peel apples for pie making. I don’t peel apples or pears otherwise to eat.

I would like to peel them, but don’t. I figure I need the fiber, so I’m being a good girl. LOL
I do usually peel cucumbers; I don’t like the taste of the peels, plus, like JLeslie said, that waxiness is just gross.

@si3tech Oh, yeah, one time when I’d also remove pear and apple skins might be for making pies. Not for stew, though.

It also occurs to me that some industrial cucumbers, apples and tomatoes have an awful amount of waxy crap on them to prolong their shelf lives, which if you don’t have a great way to remove the wax, might call for amputation in some cases.

@smudges if your cucumbers are waxy that’s the vendor, that’s not how they grow naturally. The wax is being added. I complain about it to the store if they carry those so they stop.

Red delicious apples have a tough skin and I can’t digest it. I peel all fruit and root veggies if they are not organic.

Conventionally grown fruit tends to have pesticide residue on the skin, and conventionally grown root vegetables such as carrots and potatoes have been treated with a root retardant to make them stay fresh longer. I don’t want root retardant residue in my food, so I’ll peel those veggies.

I also peel anything that’s been waxed. Also, I have enough digestive troubles without having wax in my digestive system, and just because it’s deemed “safe” by the FDA doesn’t mean it’s good for you.

We do not do that here.
We do not cut off the crust off bread for sandwiches, either.