Question on Tapered Rolling Pins??

[Elf]

I am thinking of buying a tapered rolling pin and have a few questions about them.
1 Hand placement, when I tried one out at Bed, Bath, my knuckles dragged on the counter, so I assume you don't grip it like regularrolling pin with handles, and don't think that you just use your finger tips, so how do you use it?
2 I noticed that there are several diameter of taper, 1 1/4, 1 1/2, and 1 3/4 inches. Are there any draw backs to any of these sizes?
I have to go to a meeting ,so could you leave your thoughts on this and I'll back tomorrow, Thanks

 

[Alix]

You don't wrap your hands around it at all. You keep your hands flat and you maneuver the pin in circles sort of. OK, this is harder to describe than I anticipated. My baba had one and I wish I knew where it went, I'd love to use it today. She made perohe with it. Hers was about 1.75 inches at the center and tapered to 1 inch at the ends. I believe the bigger the bore the heavier the stuff you can use it with. For example, perohe dough, or gnocchi/pasta dough through to pastry dough.

Do they sell those online? I'll have to go check.

 

[larry_stewart]

I still have my grandmothers old wood one. Its gotta be 50 - 75 years old and i love it. Its about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. You kinda have to open handedly palm it. It takes a little practice, but can kinda feel when your doing it right, it just kinda works. Hard to explain until u actually do it.

 

[letscook]

I have a tapered one and fine myself going back to my 31 yrs rolling pin not tapperd. got it as a wedding shower gift.

 

[Selkie]

I tried a tapered rolling pin and ended up giving it to a friend. I hated it! Now, I use two - one is a regular 40 year old wooden rolling pin with steel ball bearings and handles. The other is a varnished wooden dowel from a paper towel holder that works very well as a plain, 1-1/2" open hand style roller.

 

[spork]

Well, I'll be! I just went to Bed, Bath & Beyond today to buy a tapered rolling pin. They didn't sell any. So, I'm going to an Asian market sometime this week to get one.

You can think of it sorta like a computer trac ball. The only pin point of contact with the dowel is its top. When you slide the flat of your hand away from, or toward, you, the pin rolls. Often times, only one hand rolls the pin, while the off hand grips the other end to position the pin for your next roll.

What this also means is that, at most, you can only cover a dough's surface area equal to the length of your hand, from fingertip to wrist, in one rolling pass. So, if you want to roll a six inch circular wanton wrapper from scratch, there's no tool better. But, it's a terrible tool for rolling out a 20x20 inch dough for cinnamon buns.

 

[Andy M.]

...What this also means is that, at most, you can only cover a dough's surface area equal to the length of your hand, from fingertip to wrist, in one rolling pass. So, if you want to roll a six inch circular wanton wrapper from scratch, there's no tool better. But, it's a terrible tool for rolling out a 20x20 inch dough for cinnamon buns.

When you roll out a piece of dough, you don't usually roll across the entire piece from end to end. For circular crusts, for example, you roll from the center to the edge in sections working your way around the circumference. The same technique should apply to a rectangular piece of dough.

 

[Alix]

When you roll out a piece of dough, you don't usually roll across the entire piece from end to end. For circular crusts, for example, you roll from the center to the edge in sections working your way around the circumference. The same technique should apply to a rectangular piece of dough.

And there is a particular motion to using a tapered pin for this. I don't quite have it mastered but I'm willing to work on it.

 

[Selkie]

And there is a particular motion to using a tapered pin for this. I don't quite have it mastered but I'm willing to work on it.

Neither do I! That's why I'm still searching the antique shops for an old top load round tub washer with manual crank wringer. Think of the pasta or pizza you could crank out with one of those!

 

[kadesma]

You guys just scared the whatever out of me. I was all set to try my hand at pie crust..I'm now so dizzy, I think I'll just go with the dough boy I'll save the granite rolling pin to wack Gil
kades

 

[getoutamykitchen]

I have never owned a rolling pin. I have always used my old faithful empty wine bottle. I just never think about buying one.

 

[Elf]

Thanks all, the info and insight was very helpful. I have been eying the use of the tapered rolling pin for sometime, I thought I would ask around and with the the information you gave me, I am going to go out and get one to try, Bed Bath has them for $8, so it won't be big lost if I don't like it.
I use to have a wooden rolling pin, but I broke it, one too many wackes on a piece of meat, ball bearings all over the place, you get the picture, use to be a useful meat mallet! It was replaced by a aluminum, Teflon pin, works OK, but has no heft, and you can't flour it, so dough tends to stick.

 

[Selkie]

They make meat tenderizing hammers and mallets. I use one that's all wood. It's also useful for breaking up bags of ice, and knocking apart frozen beef patties. Perhaps you should ask for one for Christmas and save your rolling pins for rolling?

 

[Elf]

Selkie, I own several, they are somewhere, they surface every once in a while, both the metal and wooden one. I now use what was called a French Potato Masher, a solid wooden cylinder about 3 in diameter and 14" long, it is my go mallet, in a pinch it is a small rolling pin.