The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home - Janet Chadwick [5]
squeezo strainer
These strainers are meant for large jobs, and they take a little extra time for cleanup. All parts can be washed in the dishwasher. The strainer screens, which are the hardest part to clean, can be cleaned quickly and easily by forcing a large canning jar scrub brush down inside the straining screen and giving it a few twists. Before removing the brush, scrub the outside of the screen with a small stiff-bristled brush.
The smaller Foley food mill, shaped like a 2-quart saucepan with holes in the bottom, has a handle with a horizontal cranking arm that operates a semicircular disk that forces the food through the holes. Underneath, a spring-loaded wire scrapes the bottom clean. Releasing a nut on the bottom allows it to come apart easily for cleaning. The Foley Food Mill doesn’t work efficiently on items with tough skins. For instance, tomato skins and seeds tend to get clogged in the bottom. By reversing the action of the disk, however, it can be unclogged quite easily, and you can either remove the skins or continue straining. Foley Food Mills are readily available wherever kitchenware is sold.
food mill
Chinois strainers — cone-shaped strainers with pestles — come in aluminum or stainless steel. A large wooden pestle, made to fit snugly in the bottom of the cone, presses food against the sides to squeeze it through. Tomato seeds are frequently forced through the holes, giving the tomato purée a speckled look. These strainers cost under $20.
For making clear fruit juices, you will need a jelly bag or cheesecloth for straining out fruit pulp. These can be set inside a colander or strainer. (Cheesecloth is also needed to cover food that is being dried outside.)
A variety of manually operated vegetable and cabbage slicers on the market cost anywhere from a few dollars to under $50. While they can’t possibly be as efficient as a food processor, they still produce a nice product with less effort than slicing with a knife.
My food processor does such a good job of julienne-slicing beans with the thin-slice blade that I would never use anything else. I can do a bushel of beans julienne-style in 35 minutes. However, not all food processors do as good a job. If I had to buy a bean slicer, I would purchase the little handheld Krisk that sells for around $6. It is slow, but it does the best job.
bean frencher
Several apple peelers are on the market; some work better than others. Ask for a demonstration before you purchase one. I consider my apple peeler a nice extra, not a necessary piece of equipment. Unless you put up bushels of sliced apples, you will not find much use for a peeler.
apple peeler
If you are planning to make jams and jellies, or to can fruit juices, a thermometer is very useful. Although plenty of tests can determine when jelly has gelled, nothing is as reliable as a good thermometer.
Freezing Aids
In my opinion, boilable bags and automatic sealers are one of the most convenient and versatile food freezing aids to come along. As you will see in chapter 4, you can save a lot of time when freezing vegetables by packing the prepared produce in boilable bags, then blanching, cooling, and freezing — right in the bags. Then, when it comes time to cook the vegetables, you can even reheat them in the bag (although some are best steamed or stir-fried). These bags can also be used for freezing and reheating freshly made casseroles, soups, and stews in single-size portions.
Boilable bags have been reviewed by the FDA and found to be completely safe for processing and cooking foods. (If you have trouble finding them, try one of the mail-order companies that specialize in products for gardeners listed in the appendix). They are made of heavy-duty, food-safe plastic.
Automatic sealers work by sealing the top of the bag on a small, heated strip inside the appliance. Some sealers