What is this

[Forest]

Okay, I'm a little scared to post this because I'm think it might be something really basic that everyone knows and I'll get a dozen posts telling me that "it's a strawberry peeler, duh! Everyone knows that."

But my curiousity has gotten the better of me, so can someone tell me what this is? My roomie says it's for making ground beef, but I don't believe him. (he doesn't know that I don't believe him, though, so if I wrong, no big deal! )

I just don't want to think there's some very useful thing in my kitchen that I don't know what to do with! Or some very useless thing I should get rid of! Thanks!

[Dave the Cook]

It's a food mill, and it's very useful, though as far as I know, it can't peel strawberries.

[Chris Amirault]

Keep it. It's a food mill, which you can use to puree lots of things. The different-sized holes are particularly nice.

ETA: Like he said.

Edited February 12, 2007 by chrisamirault (log)

[Forest]

Thanks, Dave! Darn...how will i ever peel those little strawberries now?!

[paulraphael]

The nice thing about a food mill is that it purees and strains at the same time. So a lot of things that you'd have to strain or peel if you pureed them in a blender or food processor you can just toss in there unpeeled.

It also has a much gentler action than a machine, so it's less likely to turn starch into glue.

The food you put in needs to pretty soft, otherwise you'll give yourself more of a workout than you need.

And you can get the Strawberry Peeler attachement for it just a couple of thousand dollars

Edited February 12, 2007 by paulraphael (log)

[Forest]

The nice thing about a food mill is that it purees and strains at the same time. So a lot of things that you'd have to strain or peel if you pureed them in a blender or food processor you can just toss in there unpeeled.

It also has a much gentler action than a machine, so it's less likely to turn starch into glue.

The food you put in needs to pretty soft, otherwise you'll give yourself more of a workout than you need.

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Thanks! All good to know!

And you can get the Strawberry Peeler attachement for it just a couple of thousand dollars

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[Joisey]

Go get some beef chunks for your roomate and tell him to have at it. Come back in an hour and see how far he got.

Great tool, you'll never use a mixer for small batches of potatoes again.

[menon1971]

Cool tool! Quite retro. What is the brand?

These are great for pureeing chiles - much of the tough skin stays behind.

[highchef]

Is this what's known as a mouli' mill?

[menon1971]

Mouli makes one. I have a Foley which I think is inferior to the European varieties, but gets the job done. Is this one French, I cannot tell?

[SheenaGreena]

good for potatoes and tomatos!

in the summer you can make a nice tomato sauce with it

[andiesenji]

And because of the way it is made, you can put cooked fruit with the pits in and it will squeeze out the pulp and you can scrape out the pits. It's the easiest way to make plum butter because the best purple plums for that really cling to their pits. I cook them whole and use the food mill to remove the skins and pits. Lovely, smooth plum puree.

Yours looks like a particularly nice one. Love the red knobs.

[Forest]

Go get some beef chunks for your roomate and tell him to have at it.  Come back in an hour and see how far he got.

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As always, thanks everyone for lots of good info. I can't wait to get to pureeing and milling!

Menon - I don't know what brand it is (and I'm not in front of it now to look) but I imagine it is French because it was already in the kitchen of my apartment in Paris when I moved in. Apparently, the lady that lived here before me was a little grandma - so it probably is pretty old (and, yes, totally retro, which I like!)

[BeJam]

And you can get the Strawberry Peeler attachement for it just a couple of thousand dollars

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Don't waste your money on the peeler attachement. Send me your strawberries and I will peel them for only a few dollars per berry.

[phaelon56]

Whejn I was a kid my mom made applesauce from scratch every fall when apples were cheap (and seasonal versus today's market where they are in the stores all year long). She always made the applesauce using a food mill just like that one but I dont recall hers having discs with different hole sizes.

It's very useful because it delivers consistent intermediate textures to the finished product.

[insomniac]

When I was living in New Zealand every NZ kitchen had a mouli, especially good for baby food making (remember that Forest )

[presto]

Like phaelon56, my mom brought hers out every fall for applesauce - for years it never even occurred to me that you could use it for anything else!

[Smithy]

I use mine for squeezing tamarind juice out after I've soaked a chunk of tamarind pulp in boiling water. I also have used mine for "processing" watermelon to get the seeds separated from the juice. A lot of watermelon pulp also gets through, since the flesh is so porous, but the result is quite nice and thick. I think I did that with an accidentally-frozen watermelon one time and ended up with watermelon ice. Either that, or I juiced the watermelon in my mill and then stirred it up in the ice cream maker. It's been long enough since that particular incident that I only remember the fine results.

[Forest]

When I was living in New Zealand every NZ kitchen had a mouli, especially good for baby food making (remember that Forest )

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Baby food making!? but don't they squirm around a lot when you put them in there?! (sorry, everyone, I know....bad taste joke!)

And, thanks for your continued suggestions...I'll probably spend the weekend trying to mash all kinds of food through that thing!

[andiesenji]

Another thing you can do is steam dried fruits, or simmer them in water until they are soft and put them through the mill to make a paste or puree as this removes most of the frbrous bits.

I do this with dates, because I want a paste without the papery skin that can be so annoying when one is trying to prepare a very smooth spread or filling.

One of the ones I have has a superfine "disc" which will even catch the tiny fig seeds.

(Tiny seeds like these are a no-no for people with certain intestinal problems.)

One of the first things I learned to do with a Foley food mill back in the 1940s, was to put soaked (overnight) tapioca "pearls" through the mill to make a very smooth blancmange, because my great grandmother absolutely abhorred the "fish-eye" appearance of the pudding in its natural state.

Edited February 16, 2007 by andiesenji (log)

[rumball]

it's very good for pureeing and separating pits/seeds and skin from tomatoes (primary use), but also as smbody mentioned stewed fruit (plums, apples, apricots, peaches,etc). i presume it would be also be good for separating skin of steamed/stewed cooked red bell peppers, except if it's charred - pureed into sauce. it's very good on seedy berries: blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries, red/black currants - great for sauces!

and if you're making cream of smth soup and need to puree + strain seeds/skin - that'll do nicely too (like if you have zuccini/summer squash,etc in it).

Edited February 17, 2007 by rumball (log)

[maggiethecat]

The Mouli is a tool past price -- I've owned the identical one for thirty years. I use it mostly for "mashed" potatoes, but if you're into making spaetzle it's the best -- it produces, via the disc with the big holes, perfect wiggly things.