An apple is cut “tic-tac-toe” style, and it’s ready to serve 5 times faster.

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Music by Jason Shaw (RP-Clattertrap)
http://www.audionautix.com

Project Inspired By: A picture I came across on a Google image search for Life Hacks: http://bit.ly/IBAppleLifeHack

WARNING:

This video is only for entertainment purposes. If you rely on the information portrayed in this video, you assume the responsibility for the results. Have fun, but always think ahead, and remember that every project you try is at YOUR OWN RISK.

Project History & More Info:

I was surfing the internet checking out pictures of so-called Life Hacks, and I say so-called because most of them are either over used, or useless. But I stumbled across an idea that really intrigued me (http://bit.ly/IBAppleLifeHack). There wasn’t any information at all, and I couldn’t find the idea duplicated anywhere else. Just this one picture of an apple cut like a tic-tac-toe grid rather than cut into quarters. And another picture showing the apple wrapped with a rubber band to hold it together.

Luckily, my wife always has apples on hand, so I got experimenting.

Firstly, I tried cutting the apple as seen in the picture. My overall impression was that the pieces didn’t look the way I was used to seeing apple slices, but I was surprised by how much faster it was to cut them this way, and really happy to see there wasn’t a pile of apple core pieces that had to be cleaned up afterward. Just one bit of apple core that was easily discarded, or composted.

Next I tried experimenting with the rubber band around the apple. The idea is that by keeping the pieces held together with an elastic, the apple slices won’t turn brown. I tested this idea on numerous apples and found that given enough time, they all eventually go brown, but keeping the pieces together keeps them in pretty good condition for up to around 3 hours, which could be long enough to get them to work or school just in time for snacks or lunch. In any case, keeping the slices together was far more effective then putting them in a container, or in a ziplock baggie.

I have also experimented with using lemon juice on apple slices. The idea is that the citric acid in the lemon juice prevents the fruit from oxidizing. That is true! In my experiments I had apple slices last up to 8.5 hours without turning brown at all. They may have gone even longer than that, but I ate them.

While I was starting to film this video, my wife gave me a really great suggestion. She said, why not turn the apples upside down when you cut them? This way they are a lot more stable because they have a bigger base to work from. Genius!

If you’re looking for more cool tricks you can do with apples, check out my video on how to make an “Edible Apple Swan” http://bit.ly/MakeAppleSwan Apple art is fun, easy, and available, so give it a try and see how yours turns out 🙂

For one final experiment, I set up a time trial to see how the traditional method of cutting apples would compare to this new method of slicing apples. I found that the traditional (cutting into quarters, then cutting out the cores) method took 49 seconds to make 8 slices, while the new Apple Hack method took only 10 seconds for the same results! That’s 5 times faster!

So my final conclusion is that this Apple Hack is indeed 5 x faster, easier, more convenient, and saves a baggie if you use an elastic instead. In general, it just makes a lot more sense.

It’s one of those concepts that jumps out and makes you say, why haven’t we always been doing this??!

Watch for the full video, to see more experiments and explanations, and in the mean time start cutting your apples upside down! 🙂