Tools and Wares – Strawberry Clamp Huller

*Sigh, been feeling a tad uninspired lately so rather than do a recipe post, I’ll review this thingamajig here that I got from ACE Hardware store. It’s a strawberry huller, now for those of you who don’t know what a strawberry huller is, it’s basically something you use to remove the top stems or green foliage of a strawberry. There are many kinds in the market but I manage to come across this one. You can read more about it here.

This one does not cost all that much but I won’t say it’s cheap as chips either. Like below RM5. Now, it looks promising at first glance because it’s straightforward and doesn’t require an instruction manual to operate.

When I took these photos, I had a good, clean separation with the FIRST strawberry. As you can see subsequently, the tool pulled out all the green leaves leaving the top intact.

But, when I moved on to the second strawberry, things started to go down from there. I think we shouldn’t be ignorant to the fact that not all strawberries would have the same size or the same ‘easiness’ when it comes to separating with its green crown. This tool also does not work well with smaller strawberries. Some strawberry stems would have the tough part all the way into the flesh, even if you have removed the green leaves, there’s still some of that tough part left in there which you have to remove it manually in the end.

It is a workable tool, not entirely dysfunctional….but only in ideal circumstances. Strawberries in Malaysia are a lot smaller and softer because of our humid weather and when you clamp down on the hull to pull it out, you need to apply some amount of pressure on the strawberries to separate it. If you’re not careful, you might squish the whole thing.

You might think that oh…if I have a tub full of strawberries to hull, it’d make things go faster….honestly, I think this tool would make the process slower if you have to go through a tub full. If you’re going to get one, I guess get one that performs differently to the clamp-and-pull method.

For example;

I haven’t discovered other uses for this huller…well, I have not come across anyone with a giant splinter…that would’ve come in handy. I’M KIDDING!…hahaha…but think about it though.