How To Peel Grapefruits & Oranges For Packed Lunches

I'm sorry if this seems like the most obvious post ever, but it's something that took me waaay too long to figure out...so if by any chance there's one person who reads this who is in the same boat as I was, posting this will have been worth it. For the rest of you who had this figured out eons ago and are rolling your eyes, there's no need to read any further.

It all started with a scene in Ocean's Eleven -- the one where Brad Pitt's character goes to convince Saul (Carl Reiner) to join the group. Saul is sitting on a bench, peeling an orange -- not a Mandarin orange, a navel orange -- by scoring the peel, then pulling it off. Up until that point I'd always sliced my navel oranges, but the next orange I ate I scored and peeled -- and haven't sliced an orange since.

(http://www.superiorpics.com/brad_pitt/movie-picture/carl_reiner_brad_pitt_ocean's_eleven_001.html)

No one else in my family has adopted this orange peeling technique; they all remain stalwart slicers. To me though, the benefits of peeling are clear. For one, it's way less messy -- and for someone who has eaten most of her meals for the past few years one-handed while driving standard, that's a huge deal. There's no way I could have eaten orange slices on the rind without dripping everywhere while driving; peeled segments, on the other hand, no problem. Second, peeled orange segments are dry on the outside, so can be stored in the same container as my sandwich without making it soggy. And finally, you get more fibre and waste less when eating peeled oranges, as you eat the "white stuff" and septae (note: this may not be seen by everyone (my sister the pulp hater) as being a benefit).

It wasn't until more recently that I realized you could apply the exact same technique to grapefruits. Most people (including me until a few years ago) eat grapefruits by slicing them equatorially and scooping out the flesh, leaving the septae behind -- and making a sticky mess. Peeling a grapefruit, though a bit messier than peeling an orange, allows you to eat the septae and thus waste less. Here's the technique I use:

I start by using a paring knife to score through the grapefruit peel (but not into the flesh) longitudinally, down each of four sides.

This allows me to easily peel the skin off.

I use the knife to carefully peel off more of the "white stuff" (although I'm not too picky here as I don't mind eating it).

Then I pull the grapefruit in two and peel out the central strand of white pulp.

If I'm packing the grapefruit in my lunch, I often pack it just like this and wait until I'm ready to eat it to pull the segments apart (because they can be a bit drippy); for a navel orange though, the segments are much drier and can be pulled apart in advance.

With regard to seeds, if I see any big seeds I either pull them out or just spit them out when I encounter them. The really tiny seeds are no big deal; I just eat them.

As you can see, many of my packed lunches and at-home meals include a grapefruit or an orange -- all peeled :) As far as fruit goes, grapefruits are probably my favourite and I make sure to stock up whenever they're a good price. They can last a surprisingly long time in the fridge (the ones I'm eating now I bought over a month ago!).

How do you eat grapefruits?