Strainers?

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Cooking4Fun

Senior Cook
Joined
Jun 23, 2020
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389
Location
Buffalo
Are there special pots or anything specifically for straining water out of stuff? I have an 8" diameter hand held strainer, but it isn't always large enough and some things might need hours to strain. Any suggestions?
 
I have a variety of strainers from some about 4 inches in diameter to others that are 12 inches across.

Some of my strainers have mesh-fine straining areas, but others have holes that are nearly 1/4-inch in diameter.

Just depends on what I am straining.

I have one that is ultra-fine that I use to strain stocks so I can only get the liquid and leave all the solids behind.

In my opinion, there is no ONE strainer to use. Just depends on what you need to strain.
 
I have many strainers in there, varying in diameter and how fine they are. A lot of times you don't want the real fine strainers, like when you blend some chiles and other ingredients in a Mexican sauce, and you want to strain the seeds and larger pieces of skin out, but you want the rest to press through, so you'd choose a medium mesh strainer. When you're straining finer things out of water or oil, you want one of the finer ones, though they can clog faster. When making hot oil, FI, I'll strain it through a medium strainer, and let it drain, then strain it again through the fine strainer.

For straining large amounts of liquid, like broths, I have an ultra fine chinois, but rarely use it anymore.
 
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I have a large small mesh hand held strainer and a small colander that handle everything that I need to do.

If I'm straining something like ricotta cheese I line them with a paper towel or a coffee filter and set them over a mixing bowl with a plate cover and leave them in the refrigerator overnight.

Years ago when we made jelly we used clean old pillowcases to strain the juice from the fruit pulp.

Use your imagination and see what you can come up with before you go out and spend money on a specialty item that you will only use a few times each year.

Good luck!
 
When I make stock and strain it at the end, I put everything through a colander to get most of the stuff out quickly. When that has drained for a bit, I rinse the colander and line it with a clean tea towel and strain the stock again.
 
I have a strainer that's like a colander.

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And I have colanders that are like strainers.

colander.jpg
 

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