If you’re looking for a spicy ingredient that brings wild brightness, heat, and aroma, ginger is your number one choice. Fresh ginger is a powerful ingredient that can transform soups, marinades, cookies, or even a humble cup of tea. Like many fresh aromatics, you can buy enough for a dollar or two to last you a while, especially if you know how to prep and freeze it. Peeling off the dry, dusty skin can be the trickiest part of using ginger, and while you don’t necessarily have to do it, here are a few ways to do it efficiently.

You can gently peel a lot of things with a paring knife, so why not? Ginger presents two challenges to the knife: it’s round and curvy, and the skin is incredibly thin and smooth. If you use a knife to peel ginger, you’ll inevitably cut away too much of the valuable flesh, along with the skin. The same goes for a potato peeler. Most peelers are too wide to accommodate the curves of ginger, and the angle of the blade can cut too deeply, resulting in ginger loss.

How you plan to use the ginger can help you determine which method is best for your situation. Grating ginger is best if you want the root to disappear into a mixture. These tiny pieces are ideal for baked goods, sauces, or marinades. Minced ginger may be more your speed, especially if you want the ginger to be present in the final dish. Minced or matchstick ginger may be best for stir-fries, soups, or dumplings. Think about whether you are using the ginger root in a presentational way. Are you going to candy it or slice thin cross-sections of the root with a mandoline? Then you may want to consider peeling the root in a way that preserves its natural shape.

This is the most popular method of peeling, probably because it is not that difficult and almost everyone has a spoon on hand, even in a college dorm. Use a metal spoon. The best ones are small, for maneuverability around the knots, and have a thin edge to lift the skin easily.