Beulah, peel me the English language!

[shewhomust]

The tomatoes which went into last night's sauce didn't want to relinquish their peel. Sometimes after the boiling water treatment it sloughs off whole, like a glove, and sometimes you'd have to pare it off with a knife: last night was one of the latter times, and life's too short. So when durham_rambler fished something red out of the sauce and asked "What's this? Is it bacon?" (for he is ever the optimist), it didn't take me long to identify it as tomato skin.

But this morning I was thinking: tomato skin, or tomato peel? I said 'skin' automatically, and I stick to it. But I'd talk, as I just have, about peeling tomatoes, not skinning them. Likewise grapes: I'd peel a grape by removing the skin (and I'd certainly talk about the skins when I talk about wine making). What about peppers? If I put them under the grill until the skin blisters, am I peeling them, or skinning them? (I think, in fact, I'm removing their skin).

Oranges, on the other hand, have peel or rind - but I don't think they have skin. Well, between the segments, possibly, which suggests that the defining factor is thickness. Apples have peel, but neither rind nor skin; peaches and apricots have skin - is that because it's furry?

Is this a peculiarity of the language, or is it just me? And what do you call the shell of a pomegranate?

Comments

[cellio]

My first thought was that skins are usually edible and peels are usually not (e.g. orange, banana), but apples have peels so that can't be it. Hmm.

(I know about candied orange peel, but you would never eat the peel right off the fruit, which is what I meant.)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Edible / inedible is so subjective (I once saw someone peel an apricot - with a knife and fork - before eating it); but I wonder whether skin is thinner and closer to the flesh than peel? Which are factors in how likely you are to eat it.

Ah, and you got in there with the candied peel just before I did.