How do you remove spines from 30 pounds of prickly pear fruits I just picked?

I have heard of singing. With long tongs or a BBQ fork, hold the cactus pear over a flame.

I have not done it myself. This is my thought experiment:

I suggest you put a pile of them in a steel wok and use a blowtorch on high to briefly singe the fine hairy pricks. Use a steel spatula to turn the pile of prickly pears and then use the blowtorch to singe the pile again.

I think if you singe the sharp tips of the pricks then the pricks won't be able to pierce your skin.

You can use a blowtorch to singe just one fruit to see if it works before you try to singe a big pile of them in a wok (or a cheap steel bowl from a dollar store).

Good idea to do one first. I have the feeling this method might impart a propane taste to the fruit, although maybe not inside.

By blowtorch, I assume you mean a propane torch, now a real blowtorch.

Everyone seems to think it's okay to call a propane torch a blowtorch, these days.

Leather gloves. Rib them off.

He uses a paper towel which seems redundant.

On 23 Nov 2023 06:30:25 GMT, lowbrowwoman, the endlessly driveling, troll-feeding, senile idiot, blabbered again:

You using your abnormally big mouth might achieve wonders: it would at least shut you up for a while! LOL

Maybe the woke propane torch self identifies as a blowtorch. And maybe the blowtorch even has a preferred pronoun. Shitfire, maybe the blowtorch is even non-binary.

Life is complicated today.

A "blowtorch" is a generic term for that kind of torch. The fuel can be the traditional kerosene, or the modern butane, propane, MAPP gas, oxy-hydrogen, ...

I think, for this application, a blowtorch with a large red flame (lower temperature) is better than a pinpoint white-hot flame. A large flame will be quicker in doing a large batch of prickly pears and won't damage the skin of the fruits that much due to the lower flame temperature.

A large red flame can be achieved by turning the metal ring covering the air hole which controls the amount of air that can enter the torch to mix with the fuel.

It will be tedious rubbing 30 lbs of prickly pears one by one.

Yes, it was born out of ignorance. By the same people that call every refrigerator a Frigidaire and many other wrong terms.

Bob F wrote on Thu, 23 Nov 2023 05:50:57 -0800 :

I rubbed. I sang. I singed. I screamed. And still, this is what my gloves looked like after I foolishly picked the prickly pears with just leather.

I even looked up how to spell singing... What worked best, even on the gloves, was singing with the tongs. Happy Thanksgiving!

Then take them to a laundromat where you're not known, put them in a dryer, and give them 10 minutes on the low setting.

A commercial tuna operation probably uses something similar to the potato peeler. I've used on of those in the service. The old cartoon of GIs sitting around peeling potatoes by hand aren't accurate. We did crack eggs by hand. You get good after a fwe hundred dozen.

The US version used gasoline. First you let a little gasoline dribble into the priming cup and lit it. When the apparatus came up to temperature you could then open the valve again.

I have an old Svea 123 camp stove that works the same. people get a little nervous then you set it on fire.

On 23 Nov 2023 20:41:01 GMT, lowbrowwoman, the endlessly driveling, troll-feeding, senile idiot, blabbered again:

Of course, they do ...any time you open your big mouth, drama queen! <G>

On 23 Nov 2023 20:35:13 GMT, lowbrowwoman, the endlessly driveling, troll-feeding, senile idiot, blabbered again:

More exciting drama from the self-admiring resident drama queen. <VBG>

And more drama from the resident bigmouthed drama queen. LOL

If you are a reloader, you might already have a rotary separator, then you don't have to sneak into a laundromat to tumble a 30-lb bag of prickly pears

Frankford Arsenal Platinum Series Wet/Dry Media Separator with Perforated Sifter and Mesh Media Strainer for Reloading

After cutting it in halves, you can hold a half in your palm, and use a spoon of appropriate size to scoop out the soft core instead of peeling the skin. I eat kiwifruit that way, with a spoon. After I have scooped out the soft meat of a kiwifruit with a spoon in one shot, all that's left is the paper thin kiwifruit skin in my palm. It beats trying to peel the kiwifruit because peeling will tear the kiwifruit skin into many, many strips.

That link is only the media separator.

is the vibratory tumbler I use. After running a batch you pour the media and cases into the separator. I feel underprivileged; my older model only has one handle and sits on a five gallon bucket instead of a fancy case.

It might work but it would take a long time to process 30 lbs. of tunas in batches of six or so. You probably would want to ship the brass polish too.

The suff is citrus based and smells good but not good enough to eat.