Potato Ricer ? The best gadget ever ??

Love it urmstongran
Yes - saw them there only last week
I expect Tesco'll have to keep up

I inherited a potato ricer from my mother,who had inherited from her own mother. My grandmother was a Cook in a munitions factory in WW2. She took her ricer ,and her favorite knife home after each shift. There was an explosion at the factory,killing a large number of the girls working there. Every time I use the ricer I give a moments thought to all those women.

Potato ricer, havent got one but visited someone, and I thought it was rice until I tasted it, it was delicious, and looked nice too.

Gabriella I find it more difficult and messy to use than an old-fashioned potato masher!!
and definitely more difficult to wash up


There was me thinking it was a new-fangled invention Granstender - apparently not. That is an interesting and poignant story.

Not my idea (YouTube) but try microwaving whole Maris Piper potatoes, cut in half, scoop out into bowl which has been rinsed in hot water, add butter and salt. They will easily mash without lumps.

...*using a fork*

Was on a cooking site/forum recently and lots of very accomplished cooks (well, by the sound of their recipes/dishes they know what they're doing in the kitchen,) said their favourite cheat was having a bag of mashed potato in the freezer.

I tried it a few years ago - and I have to say I very rarely mash my own potatoes these days! Like others, I hate sloppy, creamed mash, like a sort of fondant potato. Ugh. Frozen mash, however, has body and tastes as good as anything I can make. You can jazz it up with butter, pepper, cream or spring onions, to taste, too but it's great as it is.

My most used kitchen gadget is my stick blender with whisk attachment.

Tudorose - a thermomix is a mixer/ blender that you can also cook in. It has a steamer basket and multiple other “must haves”. Brilliant for “through it all in soup”. Pastry takes seconds.

I have a ricer, but I've no idea why it's called that.

But - here's a tip. "Rice" it twice and it comes out like spaghetti the second time through. The kids love it!

I was tempted to buy a potato ricer in my local independent cookware shop. I thought I'd ask the staff about them and it turned out that not one of them could be bothered using a ricer. They didn't make a sale that day!

I use a spirtle or a masher, depending on my mood. I did have an attachment to my stick blender that mashed potatoes but it was a fiddle so I didn't use it much.

My mum used to use a milk bottle to mash potatoes!

This Potato ricer ( or masher as I call it ) is an unusual design in that it is called a Helix and is perfect for anyone with arthritic hands I think. Instead of the old fashioned type where you have to squeeze the top of the ricer down, this one works by twisting the top into the bottom half ( by 2 long handles ) where the potatoes are. It really is so easy. The maker is Joseph Joseph. Their website is josephjoseph.com in case anyone is interested in checking it out.
Works brilliantly with swede as I found last night and Jalima, it is so easy to clean, especially as I just chuck it in the dishwasher. I don't normally do gadgets, that is my sisters domain, but this really does do what it claims to do. How refreshing is that !

My husband was the one who liked to buy gadgets - most of which ended up sitting in a drawer. I find that it's usually just as quick to do things the old-fashioned way, with no fiddly washing-up afterwards.
DH's best effort was when he bought a fancy veg slicer. He was holding a carrot in his hand, instead of using the gizmo to hold it while he peeled it. His attention strayed, for a moment, and he neatly sliced the end off his finger. I retrieved it, gave it, and his hand a quick wash, and stuck it back on with a plaster. You can't even see a scar where it reattached! The fancy slicer went straight into the bin.
I much prefer my potatoes mashed with a fork, rather than reduced to a texture resembling semolina pudding.

spurtle

What was about writing once, reading twice?

I use an electric hand mixer for mash. Easy peasy.

I used to have a ricer and don't know why I no longer have it. Perhaps it took too long when having 9 for Sunday dinner.
Everyone loves my Sunday roast mash. Drain the spuds, let them sit for a minute in the pot with teatowel tucked down over them and the lid on. This lets them dry a little.
Mash with my trusty Prestige masher, 45 years old. Then add a little warm milk and a lump of butter, a quick go with the masher and then with a fork.

Coolgran65
How about mashing a few more spuds (plenty of butter) and having 10 for Sunday lunch?

I'm another who's had one for a few years - think it's been used 2 or 3 times at the most. For one thing, it doesn't 'mash' enough at once .................. for another, I found it too much of a faff to be bothered washing it. Now sits in the utensil drawer - might give it to my 'foodie son' .

Greengran78
Ouch! You have reminded me that I did exactly the same years ago. Top of my little finger. Unlike your DH I can still see the scar.
It was Christmastime, I had a houseful of guests, two small sons and a baby son.
While I bled copiously into a white bath towel the guests were torn between helping me and casually inspecting the half prepared food for blood.

Works brilliantly with swede
so does DH.
I have never put my ricer in the dishwasher, well, not the three times I've used it!

I do like my spurtle, SueDonim, but for stirring my porridge!

soRry, I should have put a after so does DH!

I use my spurtle for various purposes, even for rolling out biscuit dough if I can't be bothered to get my proper rolling pin. It's a multi-purpose tool!

I was wondering about that too Doodle ?

No ones told me what a ricer is or why it’s called a ricer so now I ve got to go and talk to google better look up spurtle while I m there no idea what that is either I m living in a different world here I still live with forks and mashers

The ricer pushes cooked potatoes through a round piece of metal with small holes in it, BlueBelle. The potato comes out looking like grains of rice. I have one which I have used 3 times. I find it too much faff as the metal piece that has the holes in it is loose in the utensil and lifts up every time you pull back the plunger to put in more potato. You have to put it back in place and it is covered in hot potato......ouch!
I buy Sainsburys tubs of mashed potato and will be doing so for our Boxing Day dinner........no more standing at the sink for hours peeling spuds on Boxing Day morning!!

I use my ricer a lot, I love mashed potatoes and I put it in the dishwasher