Product Reviewed:
OXO Good Grips Food Mill
As I chef, I know my way around food mills, also known as ricers. The biggest and best of them can stand atop five gallon pots and pulverize gallons of food. Food mills are a great tool for the professional kitchen that can be transported with ease and can be adaptable to any size bowl or pot.
For this reason, I was excited to see what OXO Good Grips Food Mill would allow me to do on a smaller scale in a home kitchen.
This food mill comes with three different sized attachments: fine, medium and coarse. In the instruction manual’s descriptions, the blades certainly sounded efficient: “no peeling or coring required [for apples]” and “leave tomato skins behind.”
In true OXO fashion, the handle and feet on the bowl piece were comfortable and sturdy. Upon setting up the mill, I noted the clear and concise instructions with instructional pictures. This was truly helpful in assembling the three pieces. I set the mill on top of a glass bowl and noticed that it slid around quite easily. Despite the rubber-lined feet resting on the bowl, this was not sufficient to keep it from moving.
I decided to put the mill to the test in making an easy recipe that pleases even the pickiest of eaters: root vegetables mashed with garlic and fresh herbs. For anyone who loves mashed potatoes, it is a perfect dish. The recipe is simple – boil the vegetables, pass it through the food mill, blend the remaining ingredients together. The end result is quite substantial – it makes enough for a holiday feast.
For this recipe, you should likely use the medium disc attachment as it is advertised to work for applesauce, which has a similar texture. I attached the medium disk inside the bowl and snapped on the blade attachment.
I strained the first batch of vegetables to pour into the bowl of the mill; as I began to turn the handle, I noticed water coming from the vegetables into the bowl. This was expected since the vegetables were boiled, but I did not see any pureed bits of vegetables falling. Keeping in mind that the instructions said to reverse turning directions frequently, I began spinning in the other direction. Soon enough, I began to see small drops of smooth vegetable. The process took a while, but I eventually worked through the entire batch. By the time I was done, however, the puree was room temperature and no longer hot.
Also, because the bowl is quite small and it took so long for the blade to pass the mixture through the disc attachment, it was fairly inefficient for larger dishes. Making large batches of jam, jelly or sauces would be more efficiently executed using a different tool — but for smaller dishes, this product is ideal.
A food mill is a great tool in the kitchen. It is a great way to provide texture to pureed or blended foods without worrying about an electrical outlet. The OXO Good Grips Food Mill is a good product for the cost.
