This site uses only a few technical cookies necessary for its operation. By continuing to browse, you accept their use.
To find out more...
To find out more...
The salad spinner is not only for salad
Where we see that the salad spinner can be used for many other purposes.
11 K 4.8/5 (20 reviews)
Keywords for this post:Salad spinnerUseSpinningTrickLast modified on: March 25th 2022
The salad spinner is not only for salad
If you are of a certain age (like me) you may have known the salad basket, from your mother or grandmother, that we used to shake outside with a big swing of the arms, to wring out the salad leaves after washing, and this before using them or adding vinaigrette once poured into a salad bowl.
Even if you still find this kind of basket, hardly modernized, you may have at home a salad spinner, this rather simple utensil: there is a basket inside that turns on an axis, driven by the crank on top. It's the centrifugal force that does all the work, the water is ejected from the leaves that turn very fast inside, and recovered in the bottom.
And a salad spinner can be used for something else than spinning salad, in practice, as soon as you have to dry or more globally to remove water from something, you can also use your spinner.
Here are 2 specific examples:
If you blanch spinach, that is to say that you plunge the leaves into boiling salted water for less than a minute before plunging them into cold water, you will then need to spin them out before you can use them in your recipe.
Traditionally, you drain them in a colander and then put them on a tea towel and press on them to remove as much water as possible that the towel absorbs. Traditional, but not very efficient, and you will stain your towel green.
It is much more effective to pass the spinach leaves out of the cold water in the spin-dryer, by small packets, you will be astonished of all the water which comes out.
Another example, you want to make a broccoli or cauliflower gratin, in principle you will also blanch them, and then drain them before putting them in the gratin dish.
Not the best method, broccoli (like cauliflower) retains water from cooking because of its structure, this water does not go away when draining in the usual way, and it may disturb the creamy side of your gratin.
Here again, a little spin-drying...
These two examples are not exhaustive, of course, you should not hesitate to use the wringer for a lot of food that you need to dry, it is much more efficient than a simple passage in the strainer even followed by a drying with a cloth.
To sum up: Your salad spinner can effectively be used to spin many other foods besides salad, both raw and cooked.
Even if you still find this kind of basket, hardly modernized, you may have at home a salad spinner, this rather simple utensil: there is a basket inside that turns on an axis, driven by the crank on top. It's the centrifugal force that does all the work, the water is ejected from the leaves that turn very fast inside, and recovered in the bottom.
So?
And a salad spinner can be used for something else than spinning salad, in practice, as soon as you have to dry or more globally to remove water from something, you can also use your spinner.
Here are 2 specific examples:
If you blanch spinach, that is to say that you plunge the leaves into boiling salted water for less than a minute before plunging them into cold water, you will then need to spin them out before you can use them in your recipe.
Traditionally, you drain them in a colander and then put them on a tea towel and press on them to remove as much water as possible that the towel absorbs. Traditional, but not very efficient, and you will stain your towel green.
It is much more effective to pass the spinach leaves out of the cold water in the spin-dryer, by small packets, you will be astonished of all the water which comes out.
Another example, you want to make a broccoli or cauliflower gratin, in principle you will also blanch them, and then drain them before putting them in the gratin dish.
Not the best method, broccoli (like cauliflower) retains water from cooking because of its structure, this water does not go away when draining in the usual way, and it may disturb the creamy side of your gratin.
Here again, a little spin-drying...
These two examples are not exhaustive, of course, you should not hesitate to use the wringer for a lot of food that you need to dry, it is much more efficient than a simple passage in the strainer even followed by a drying with a cloth.
To sum up: Your salad spinner can effectively be used to spin many other foods besides salad, both raw and cooked.
Lasts posts
Butter vs. grease
We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?December 1st 20259145
Getting out of the fridge early
Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?November 24th 20251,0645
Who's making the croissants?
When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...November 23th 2025961
Oven height
When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.October 8th 20252,6435
The importance of sieving
In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?September 3rd 20257,4693
Other pages you may also like
The return of the "Norman hole"
You maybe know the "trou normand", this old gastronomic custom typically French which consists in taking a (small) glass of calvados, generally between the last course and the dessert? It's something that seems a bit anachronistic nowadays, having a glass of an alcohol of more than 60° in the...December 18th 202115 K4.8
No need to boil gelatin
Gelatin is a magical ingredient for making light, creamy, structured desserts, yet it's often misused in the kitchen. A common mistake in some recipes is the idea that it needs to be boiled for it to work properly, but this is a mistake indeed: gelatin melts at a much lower temperature, around...November 21th 20248,1945
Tranché, dissociated, failed, in short... missed!
When preparing a sauce or a cream, there's always a (small) risk that the creamy preparation you're working on will suddenly separate into two parts of different textures: a liquid part, for example, and a more or less solid part, or even become lumpy. It's terribly frustrating, but we'll see...June 19th 202313 K5
The grease spray
As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...August 26th 20257,0355
The window-pane test in bread-making
The home bread-makers often ask themselves “Have I kneaded my dough long enough?” . A good question, as dough that is insufficiently kneaded will not rise properly or will fall flat when the top is slashed, which is very frustrating. To know when the dough is ready, one can rely on the length...June 16th 202196 K 23.9
Post a comment or question
Follow this page (as 2 people already do)
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.