Onions are one of those kitchen staples that come in many forms and while each brings different flavour and appearance to your dish, they also differ in how easy (or tricky) they are to peel. For a company like M&P Engineering, which manufactures onion peelers and processing equipment, understanding these differences is crucial.
Yellow onions have a strong, pungent flavour when raw, which mellows and sweetens with cooking. Their skin tends to be thicker and more papery, often dry and brittle. The dry, brittle skin of yellow onions usually separates well from the flesh, which makes them comparatively straightforward to process in peeling machinery. However, because the skin is thicker than other varieties, it sometimes requires deeper top and tail cuts.
Red onions have thinner skin, and this skin carries a greater moisture content than the skin of yellow onions. The thinner skins of red onions can occasionally cling stubbornly to the flesh, particularly when they have absorbed moisture. This requires machinery to operate with greater precision to avoid damaging the edible layers.
White onion’s skins are smooth and usually thinner than those of yellow onions, while the flesh is crisp and firm. The very thin skins of white onions make peeling more delicate, as aggressive handling can easily damage the underlying layers.
These variations between onion types highlight why flexibility is so important in industrial peeling equipment.
M&P’s Large Onion Peeling machine uses self-adjusting floating knives to top, tail and peel onions. It is easy to operate and makes sure the product remains in pristine condition after it has been peeled by using a dry peeling process. The dry onion peeling process is able to process up to 750kg of onions per hour. See it in action here.
M&P’s Small Onion Peeling machine is also simple to operate and you get a product similar in quality to hand peelers at high speed and consistent quality. This machine does not require a lot of labour and is simple to clean and easy to maintain. It can top, tail and peel onions from 18mm to 45mm.
If you would like to find out more about M&P Engineering’s onion peelers, call 0161 872 8378 or contact us here.