Stemgem Strawberry Huller Review

Stemgem Strawberry Huller – I recently picked up at Williams-Sonoma the Chef’n Stemgem Strawberry Huller, and I must say that it works pretty well. I am not a gadget person at all, so I was rather surprised at how easily it worked. You simply push the green button to extend the prongs, insert it into the strawberry, and then twist and pull to remove the hull.

The one I bought didn’t come with instructions, but it only took about six strawberries to figure out. At first I was just inserting the prongs, letting them close (as much as possible) and pulling, and that didn’t work so well, but a small twist and pull made the stems come out nice and neat.

Of course, if you are handy with a paring knife, it will take about the same amount of time, but for kids this is perfect. The only thing I would add is that it does take some coordination to use for younger kids. They will have to push on the button at the same time as inserting it into the strawberry. That isn’t so hard, but if the prongs are too wide for a small berry, then it might remove half of the berry mass. Also, if the prongs aren’t opened enough or the berry is a bit riper, then the berry can easily be squished if too much pressure is applied.

You can get the Chef’n StemGem Strawberry Huller at Amazon for $8 (with free shipping) or you can buy it for $8 at Williams-Sonoma if you have a store nearby.

Lastly, if you don’t want to spend money on a gadget, you can also use a thicker drinking straw. You just push the straw through the bottom tip of the strawberry towards the hull and push it out. Here is a YouTube video on how to do it.

Kids may actually find this technique just as fun, and it can also be used when you are on-the-go and don’t have the special huller or knife handy. Otherwise, for the adults out there, I prefer this method from Chowhound when using a paring knife.