These machines help to puree food and strain seeds, fiber and skin from it. A food mill leaves a desirable natural texture to the food, unlike when working with a blender and sieve. These tools are ideal for creating sauces, mashed potato, and baby food and can also handle many other tasks. This post explores some of the best food mills in the market to enhance your cooking.
Food Mill Buying Guide
My dad ran a small café that he inherited from his mother. He used homegrown vegetables. For some time, he used his mother’s old food mill from, but after a while, it got cranky and inefficient. Apple sauce and tomato sauce dishes were a staple on his menu. So, I had to find a better food mill to keep his kitchen running smoothly. I found many mills that were very disappointing. At one time, a food mill I was using released an oily substance like grease onto my apple sauce. That would have sent somebody to the hospital! I knew I had to do things right. After digging around, I stumbled upon the right food mill buying guide.
Find a food mill with an ergonomic build
In many instances, we have struggled with food mills fitting over your bowls and pots. It can be a frustrating scenario when you have to stabilize the food mills as you work to avoid messing up your tables and wasting food. For that reason, it would help to find a food mill with the right hooks and loops to sit on your bowl. Some high-end models use retractable stands that make your work easier. Similarly, the design of the handle matters a great deal too. Find a model with a rubberized knob for a comfortable experience even when you have to mill for long hours.
Choose a model with interchangeable disks
There are times when we use our food mills for tomatoes, other times it is apple sauce, and in other cases, it is mashed potatoes. These foods are of different textures and therefore will need grinding by the corresponding appropriately-sized disks. The best food mill models come with a 3 set of disks each with a different size.
Find a food mill with a sufficient bowl capacity
A properly sized food mill bowl will allow you to finish the job much faster. Also, the food you are grinding is less likely to fall off from the mill. A 2 or 3-quart food mill should be ideal for the job.
The straining action should be accurate
In so many cases, tomato skin and seeds gas was able to pass through to my sauce. For that reason, your perfect food mill should have a disk with consistent perforations.
Think about food safety
Needless to emphasize, check the integrity of the material and construction to make sure that nothing from it contaminates your food. Stainless steel is a much safer material to have in a food mill.
It should be easy to use
The ideal food mill should be easy to take apart and put it back together. You should be able to have an easy time cleaning it either by hand or in the dishwasher. Some models use spring-loaded disks for easy removal and installation during cleaning. That’s a desirable feature.
Look for a high grinding efficiency
Angularly positioned blades are more efficient and will not miss to grab and grind food pieces. The blade should have a good grab to push the food down the disks. That is necessary to save you the trouble of having to dislodge food from the sides and beneath the blade always.
The Best Food Mills in the Market
1. Granite Ware Stainless Steel Deluxe Food Mill
This food mill has three stainless steel grinding disks. For that reason, it might be easier to achieve a wide range of food textures when working with it, from fine to delicate, coarse and chunky. You might also like the fact the food mill can fit directly over stockpots and mixing bowls. In light of that, milling becomes a painless and less messy process. The only caveat here is that the milling machine sits too deep into some pots. You might be forced to work with small batches of food at a time to clear the build-up of the sauce or puree. Another reason you might want to choose the Granite Ware Stainless Steel Deluxe Food Mill is that it automatically does the peeling and seeding for you. That can save time, and not so many food mills have that functionality. By and large, the mill’s automatic de-seeding helps to reduce waste. The device features a handle with two end clips to help with stability when you are using it. One drawback that you might have to deal with is that the machine is somehow challenging to clean.
2. Stainless Steel Food Mill FLOTTE LOTTE by GEFU
Unlike the Granite Ware food mill, the Flotte Lotte uses two adjustable perforated disks. You might be able to get delicate and chunky food textures with it, but not anything that falls in the middle. The fact that the discs are interchangeable is appealing, methinks. You might be able to use a third party disk with the Flotte Lotte to get the texture you want. A notable design inclusion here, mainly, is the vertical plate that secures your food in place when you are grinding it. You might find that this feature eases the task, efficiently utilizing the amount of force you apply on the handle. Better still, there is an included pulp scrapper, which can aid in removing the accumulated pulp so you can work continuously. The Flotte Lotte can help in peeling and de-seeding as well, just like the Granite Ware food mill. This aspect has the potential to reduce the amount of food content that goes into pulp. The entire build of this mill is stainless steel. That means that your food will be safe from contamination by rust and corrosions. Its sieving functionality is also much advanced than what you get with the Granite Ware, helping you to get the most from your fruits and vegetables among other foods.
3. Mirro 50024 Foley Stainless Steel Healthy Food Mill Cookware
The Mirro 50024 Foley also uses a stainless steel construction like the previous two models of food mills. Stainless steel is not only food safe but also helps with durability. This food mill’s performance is, however, average when compared to the Granite Ware and the Flotte Lotte. The Mirror 50024 works well in peeling and de-seeding, but when it comes to pureeing, you might need to apply a lot more pressure on the handle. It strains relatively well and minimizes the chances of seeds and skin passing through to your sauce. You might also find its old school design to be user-friendly; its handles sit in the bowl and not at the top like the previous food mills in this review. The primary concern here is that the food mill has a thin stainless steel construction. The whole contraption might come apart after a long time of use.
4. RSVP INTERNATIONAL Endurance Food Mill
The RSVP Endurance food mill borrows a leaf from the Granite Ware with its 3 sets of interchangeable disks. This design direction might be a blessing when you want to use it to process a variety of food textures. The body of the food mill is stainless steel. The makers assert that theirs (18/10) is the kind of stainless steel that is hygienic and non-reactive. Such is the kind of food mill model that I should have considered to prevent the contamination of my apple sauce. You might also be pleased with this tool given its ergonomic design. The food mill measures 8 inches in diameter and is 4 inches high. On the other hand, the 7.5-inch handle has the potential to reduce the amount of effort needed for milling. It helps to hold the machine steady when in use. The food mill is relatively easy to disassemble and clean. However, the main challenge you might encounter here is that the sieving action is not optimized. Skins and seeds fall through to your sauce.
5. OXO Good Grips Food Mill
What you have here is a food mill with three stainless steel grinding disks. That, as we have seen, helps with grating versatility. The main feature you might find outstanding in the Oxo food mill is its ergonomic design. The manufacturer states that the machine is suitable for hot foods. True enough, its girth features rubber-like plastic insulation that helps to keep things hot as you grind, grate or juice. The handle is insulated as well for a comfortable grip through the milling process. But that’s not the end of it. The Oxo food mill uses three non-slip legs. Unlike the food mill designs that are troublesome to fit over bowls and pots, the three stands, in this case, can help to make things easier. These legs are easily foldable when you want to store it away. The disks have the potential to deliver a reliable sieving action. That is because they have consistent small perforations that are evenly distributed on the surface to keep the pulp, seeds, and skins out of your food. The Oxo food milling machine is relatively easy to use. For instance, the makers have used spring-loaded disks that are easy to detach and attach. The milling bowl has a volume of 2.3 quarts, which might allow you to mill a significant amount of food in a single batch. One would say that the main drawback here is the heavy-duty nature of this food mill. But apart from that, the food mill doesn’t come with a pulp scrape. You might need to regularly use a spatula to unclog pulp and seeds from blocking the blades. Be that as it may, the Oxo food mill uses an angular spinning blade. For that reason, the fruits or potatoes you are crushing are effectively pushed into the disks, helping you to conclude the job much faster.
The Best Pick
The OXO Good Grips Food Mill checks right on most of the tenets in our buying guide. This food mill can give you a variety of textures owing to its three sets of grinding disks. You can work with both cold and hot foods on this machine, and it features substantial insulation for that. The disks have a consistent perforation for efficient straining action. On the other hand, the blades are angularly placed for efficient ricing. The food mill’s ergonomic design might work in your favor. The three-leg stands make it easy to sit over bowls.
