Chinoise strainer question

TZ-OH6 · August 21, 2009

Someone gave us a chinois but not the pestle. I have never used one before so I do not know if our replacement pestle fits properly. It may be too short. The upper knob rests against the lip of the cone so that there is a 1/3" gap between the upper portion of the pestle and the side of the l seive. This seems to make the process of squishing cooked down tomato solids through the little holes fairly inefficient. Is this the way the cone and pestle is supposed to fit (with a gap)?

dice · August 26, 2009

Some images of chinoise and pestle:

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/wsimg...016/img89m.jpg
http://fantes.com/images/98275strainers.jpg
http://www.recipetips.com/images/glo...ois_pestle.jpg
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/images/chinois.jpg

I would guess that you want the pestle long enough so that
the flat surface extends beyond the top of the screen.

August 21, 2009	#1
TZ-OH6 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Mid-Ohio Posts: 847	Chinoise strainer question Someone gave us a chinois but not the pestle. I have never used one before so I do not know if our replacement pestle fits properly. It may be too short. The upper knob rests against the lip of the cone so that there is a 1/3" gap between the upper portion of the pestle and the side of the l seive. This seems to make the process of squishing cooked down tomato solids through the little holes fairly inefficient. Is this the way the cone and pestle is supposed to fit (with a gap)?

August 26, 2009	#2
dice Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: PNW Posts: 4,743	Some images of chinoise and pestle: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/wsimg...016/img89m.jpg http://fantes.com/images/98275strainers.jpg http://www.recipetips.com/images/glo...ois_pestle.jpg http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/images/chinois.jpg I would guess that you want the pestle long enough so that the flat surface extends beyond the top of the screen. __________________ -- alias