Need advice on proper tool

[cfairchi]

Hello, I am trying to figure out the best tool to use to "de-seed". My fiance likes to make raspberry and strawberry sauces for deserts and such but absolutely hates the seeds. She currently uses a small ~1 cup size conical mesh strainer thing to push the sauce through with a spoon to get the seeds out. This is a very tedious process especially for a large amount of sauce. She mentioned wanting a big heavy duty commercial sieve so that she can do this much easier. So I am basically birthday shopping for the right thing to get her. I have come across a "chinoise" thing and food mills and was wondering which would be better for this purpose. The food mill looks like it could be used for other purposes, but not sure how well it would do to de-seed. What should I get that would make this task easy? thanks

[Marzoli]

I thought I was the only one who avoided raspberries (blackberries, too) because of the seeds. I hope somebody has an answer for this!

[phatch]

There's another tool too whose name escapes me. It looks like an oversized tambourine with a fine nylon mesh cloth stretched across it. It lets the juice through and a bit of the pulp but holds the seeds back. If I used the Epicurious dictionary correctly it's called a tamis?


On the cheap make-do side of things, my mom used an old CLEAN pillow case when she made grape jelly. Put the cooked pulp in the pillow case and let it hang for the juice to run out. She'd give it a squeeze near the end to get the last juice. Same for the raspberries when she made raspberry jam.

[bubbamom]

A Foley Food Mill might be just the thing. Picture a kettle but instead of a solid bottom, it has a heavy screen type bottom. on the inside of the kettle is a press on a handle. You hold the handle of the kettle, put in your fruit and turn the handle to force the pulp thru the bottom into a bowl. I got mine at a hardware store years ago, but my grandmother had one a "gazillion" yrs ago that I still use today at our cottage. If you are making a jelly, the cheese cloth (pillow case) drip method works fine, but if you want strawberry or raspberry/blackberry pulp, the food mill works great. (It also works well for making tomato sauce.

[Greg]

I use this. Looks to be at least a quart capacity. Tell her to be careful pushing with the spoon; it can stretch or break the mesh. I use a ladle to push, carefully.

[Aurora]

A Chinois or conical strainer is the tool for this job.



See:

Amazon.com: RSVP Endurance Conical Strainer, 5": Home & Garden

[Transformation]

Cheesecloth