A
Stainless Steel Food Mill is a kitchen appliance used to grind or make food such as soups, sauces, or mashed potatoes. It can be used for canning or jam making to produce a smooth puree without seeds, skins, or stems. It can be used for hot or cold food. It may also be called a rotary
Tomato Mill.
Parts of a Food Grinder
A stainless steel
Vegetable Mill is usually a manual device with a hand crank on top. It is shaped like a wide-mouthed inverted cone with legs or protrusions that allow it to rest on a bowl and remain stable while you pour in the food you want to season and turn the crank. The bottom has perforations that allow the food being ground to be filtered into a receiving bowl.
Attached to the crank is a grinding plate. When you turn the crank, the food is crushed onto the perforated disc at the bottom of the food grinder and then filtered through the sieve holes into the bowl you place below it. Food grinders often come with interchangeable perforated sieve discs to allow for a finer or coarser puree.
If you reverse the crank direction after extracting as much food as possible, seeds, skins, and other debris are carried to the top of the grinding plate. You can then easily invert the food grinder over a trash or compost bin and discard the scraps.
Uses of a food grinder
You can use a food grinder to make applesauce or ketchup, with the advantage of being able to add hot, unpeeled or unpeeled fruit or vegetables to the grinder and create a puree without seeds or peels. This results in less food waste than peeling or seeding. There are usually only a few scraps and seeds left after grinding. These can be composted or discarded.
Food grinders can be used to make baby food or purees for people who have difficulty chewing or swallowing and who have limited soft foods. Duchesse potatoes or other mashed potatoes can be made using a food grinder or potato masher.
Comparison of food grinders and food processors
Food grinders are simple mechanical, non-electric kitchen appliances. They can usually be cleaned in a dishwasher. They can be used for hot or cold foods and for soft, semi-solid or most liquid foods.
Food processors do not strain out seeds and peels. If you process tomatoes with skin and seeds in a food processor, you will end up with a coarse texture because they are chopped but not liquefied. A food grinder is effective at straining and ensuring that the sauce is free of coarse seeds and peels.
A food processor is better suited for solid foods that cannot be effectively ground in a food grinder, such as cheese or nuts. Foods ground in a food grinder must be soft and are usually steamed, roasted, or boiled before processing.
