Food Mill for Sauce Season

Tomatoes and apples fill the markets right now and they are begging to be sauced.

On Monday, we talked using a wide pan to keep tomato sauce tasting more lively. Today we want to check in with you on another tool of serious sauce makers: the food mill.

We've heard many people scoff at the food mill. We think they don't understand how this old-fashioned looking tool differs from a food processor, blender, or standing mixer. Food mills puree foods, similar to the job a food processor would do, but they also strain away seeds and skins at the same time. A food mill is used to puree fruits and vegetables including squash purees, mashed potatoes, and baby food. Most food mills are hand-powered, keeping delicate or starchy foods from becoming over-worked.

Cook's Illustrated recommends the Cuisipro food mill. We own this spendy German food mill from Rosle. We've also seen models from All-Clad (it seemed very heavy when we tried it in the store) and OXO (only $49.95. If you own an OXO food mill, we'd love to hear about it!)

Food mills take up a lot of space and are likely necessary only for cooks who make sauces and purees regularly. For those who don't own a food mill, Trillium suggests grating seeded tomatoes into the sauce pot.

If you're in the market for a food mill, we suggest going to the store to try out a couple of models. There's a lot of moving parts to test out: feel how the handle fits in your hand, practice swapping out the plates and test the strength of the central spring.

Comments (11)

My boyfriend's parents use their Foley food mill about every other night to make applesauce, and occasionally tomato sauce or mashed potatoes. You definitely want a stainless steel model, as their previous non-stainless mill got rusty, which was unappetizing. I'm not sure I need one myself, since I don't do a lot of sauces and purees... it seems like a bit of a unitasker in that regard.

posted by SisterRae on September 19th 2007 at 9:34am
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Food mill applesauce is a thing to behold. Simmer a bunch a quartered apples in a bit of water or cider until they are mushy, and pass them through the mill. No need to core, seed, peel, or sweeten them. I serve this on the side of every meal I make in the fall.

posted by Leland on September 19th 2007 at 10:27am
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I LOVE MY FOOD MILL!

I mostly use it for applesauce, and it produces the most lovely, smooth sauce ever.

I have a vintage one (that is way better than one I had picked up at BB&B a few years ago) that I found at an estate sale. I think the quality of new ones has really suffered over time - would recommend keeping your eyes open for a (gently) used one.

posted by nwu on September 19th 2007 at 10:54am
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I got an inexpensive one from Crate and Barrel last year and I love it. I hang it from our pot rack when not in use so it really doesn't take up much space at all.

posted by jenblossom on September 19th 2007 at 11:10am
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I also have an inexpensive and relatively small one from Crate & Barrel. I won't make applesauce with anything else.

posted by Sarah122 on September 19th 2007 at 11:25am
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I LOVE my food mill!

1. It belonged to my great-grandmother.
2. It's super fun.
3. It's purely mechanical (I got excited today when I saw a meat grinder in the basement of my local hardware store - reminded me of my mother - hers was my great-grandma's too).
4. It saves me having to peel apples/tomoates before I cook them.
5. It saves energy (and gives me a mini-workout, other than holding down a "blend" button")
6. No one recognizes it in my kitchen, so I look like an innovator.

posted by MargaretR on September 19th 2007 at 11:46am
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Huh. So would a food mill have fixed the texture of my butternut squash soup? It came out a bit grainy, not nearly as smooth and unctuous as I was expecting.

posted by erin in indy on September 19th 2007 at 2:39pm
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I actually recommend grating unseeded whole tomatoes into the pot and ignoring the seeds. You'll be left holding most of the skin which is the part that changes the flavor of the tomato the most. I can't take credit for it, it was a tip Madhur Jaffrey learned and passed along! You could grate seeded tomatoes if you really wanted to, but that would be too fussy and time consuming for me, I'm inpatient!

regards,
trillium

posted by trillium on September 19th 2007 at 5:46pm
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I have the type of food mill pictured and an italian "tomato mill" from williams-sonoma...and for tomatoes for making sauce the latter is like a turbo-mill compared to the silver top crank model. For tomatoes, I think the general food mill is too slow, especially for large batches (althouhgh it processes well, it takes MUCH longer).

posted by micheleofnj on September 19th 2007 at 6:38pm
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I received a food mill for a wedding gift. I'd always wanted one but wasn't sure why or how to use it. I went looking online and found your awesome tomato sauce recipe which I made using dry farmed early girl tomatoes from watsonville and throwing in a thai dragon pepper to soak as the sauce cooked. Remove the pepper as you would a bay leaf, at the end before milling or serving. Delicious! I have 5 more pounds of tomatoes and I'm going to use this recipe to can a few pints of sauce.

I have the OXO food mill. Having never used one before I have nothing to compare it to. However, I thought it was great! Has 3 differently sized blades (?). I started with a really small one and then finished off with the bigger one. Seems to have done the trick. It's easy to turn and sits quite nicely on top of a bowl or pan because it has fold out legs (like you'd see on a small backpacking stove).

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