Going back about 15 years ago, food processors became the must have in every kitchen.  While there is no denying the convenience of them, there are times when you need to use a food mill to preserve some of the texture and not obliterate the food.  While you are still blending it down or pureeing the food, it seems to hold its flavors better when you use a food mill.  That being the case, the question of which food mill is the best has come to light.

Cuisipro Food Mill is a great product that can be found for around $100.  This is a far cry from the price tag that you will find on the electric food processors, but with a little elbow grease, you get the same results.  This is a great stainless steel food mill that has 3 interchangeable disks that will allow you to puree your food to 2,3 and 4mm.  The food mill weighs just under 4 pounds and is a great accessory to any kitchen.

If you are looking for something less expensive, but just as effective, you can try the Mouli Food Mill.  This is also a stainless steel food mill that features 3 interchangeable disks.  This food mill comes apart very easily and is quite simple to clean either by hand or with a quick trip through the dishwasher.  This is an Italian made food mill that is ideal in preparing home-made soup and gravy.  Forget about buying the jarred gravy, get out the tomatoes and make your own!

If you want something that is in the middle of these two items, the Foley Food Mill would be the choice.  This is another stainless steel food mill that comes in a variety of sizes and is also dishwasher safe.  This is actually the perfect mill for doing hearty soups and mashed potatoes.  When you want to create something that has a little chunkiness to it, there is nothing better.

While these are only three of the many food mills on the market, there are plenty of other options available.  Food mills come in both manual and electric models and also come in a variety of materials.  They can be used to puree food, make soups, create sauces and a variety of other uses as well.  Forget using that food processor because it destroys the natural flavor of your foods.  The blender does the same thing.  Bring back a little taste of the old country and add a stainless steel food mill to your kitchen.

The problem with a food processor is that it moves at such a high speed, the food literally gets obliterated and for certain items, the integrity of the flavor of the food is lost.  For certain food items, like sauces and gravies, it is better to slowly mash them down and allow the true flavor to gradually escape and be captured in the dish.  That is hardly an option when you have a piece of machinery that is flying around at 100 miles an hour.

Now that food mills are back in style, the question is whether or not the electric food mills are the same thing as a food processor.  It is kind of a tricky question as you are really going to have to look at the electric food mill and make sure that it really is what it is saying that it is.  If it is truly a food mill, the only difference would be that you don’t have to hand crank the machine in order to puree the food.

However, having said that, there are plenty of people that will tell you that using an electric food mill defeats the purpose of using the food mill in the first place.  This device actually creates a lot more interaction with the food in that you have to be present and are monitoring the progress of the grinding our pureeing at all times.  For some purists, there is nothing like it.

The reason is that electric food mills promote the ability to turn on the food mill and walk away and let the device handle the work.  You can hardly do that when you have a manual device and are only done when you see that the product is to your liking.  Again, this is a matter of preference, but it also kind of the point in using a food mill in the first place.

If you want to rediscover the flavor of foods, there is nothing like using an old Mouli Food Mill.  Now here is a piece of equipment that is reasonably priced and made in Italy that you will not only find in homes, but in many Italian Restaurants as well.  You have not truly had tomato sauce until you have made it this way.

Is the electric food mill better than the standard one?  It is a tough call, but if you talk to any cook who uses one, they will probably scoff if you tell them you want a food mill but are going to get an electric one so you don’t have to hand puree everything.  Sometimes it is better to do a little hard work and truly appreciate the final product than it is to leave it up to technology to do all of your dirty work.

It can be argued that some of the modern appliances have made life easier for everyone to cook, but at the same time the actual artistry of making a great dinner has been lost.  While just about anyone can now make a very good meal for the family to eat, the truly great meals come from old fashioned preparation.  Take something as simple as mashed potatoes and you will soon realize what we are talking about.

It is pretty common today for people to make up their potatoes and then throw them into a mixing bowl and blend them to death before they put them out on the table.  Who wants pureed potatoes?  This is not true mashed potatoes, yet people everywhere are putting this horrible mix out on the table and portraying it as something that it is not.

No, mashed potato purists everywhere need to stand up and insist that mashed potatoes need to be mashed, not blended.  How you do this is with a good old fashioned food mill.  After you boil your potatoes, you can blend them with your mix of spices, cream and butter into the food mill to create true ecstasy for the potato lover deep inside of us all.  They will be smashed down and run through the food mill, but there will still be just a hint of a piece of potato here and there to remind you that you are indeed easting potatoes and not soup for dinner.

Truth be told, blended mashed potatoes just don’t hold a candle to mashed potatoes that are made like this.  When they are blended down like that, they simply lose some of what makes mashed potatoes taste so good.  The same can be said for many other products where blending or a food processor is just overkill.  There are times to puree food and then there are times to use a food mill.

If you are a purist, you can use one of the many hand food mills that are on the market.  If you insist on having some of the convenience of modern technology, there are also some very nice electric food mills that you can purchase that will give the same result without the physical exertion that a true food mill may require.

Every now and then you have to look at modern technology and laugh.  Sometimes newer and faster is not better.  In cooking, this is usually the case as nothing beats good old fashioned hearty food.  You can hardly make that in a blender!

Have you ever looked at the label of a regular bottle of baby food?  Those so called healthy little meals are packed with just about everything we as adults try to avoid.  This is processed food that needs preservatives in order to remain safe to eat, but in the process the flavor of the food is changed dramatically.

If you don’t believe it, give your child a sample of their favorite baby food.  Now make the same food and puree it and you can be all but guaranteed that they will make a face and refuse to eat it.  This is because the food that they are eating is loaded with salt, sugar and other little goodies that are not meant to actually be in there if you were cooking the item yourself.  Then parents wonder why junior refuses to eat those green beans that he loved when he was a baby.  The reason is that they are used to food that is hardly an honest representation of what they will be eating once they go to normal solid foods.

Now the way to avoid all of this is by making your own baby food with a baby food mill.  There is simply no reason that you cannot feed the baby real food as long as it is prepared properly.  Not only is your baby eating healthier, but you are also saving a ton of money by making your own food versus paying the high price of the individual bottles of baby food.

In addition to all of this, your child is getting used to what real food tastes like. The transition from baby food to table food will be much easier and you are assured that the bowl will not go flying across the room in fine Stuey fashion when you put down those carrots.  Instead, the child will learn to like food the way it is supposed to taste like instead of the “candy” version that the baby food manufacturers are serving up.

There is nothing like the pure taste of food and using a baby food mill to prepare your child’s meals will enable them to enjoy these flavors very early on in life.  Not only that, but they are more than likely to continue to eat healthy and put up less of a fight when they finally get moved to table food.  Your choice, feed them the bottled garbage that will have them begging for French toast every night at dinner or use a baby food mill and get them used to the real flavors of food.

If you have never used a food mill, it is a device that usually comes in three pieces.  It will have grinding wheel, a bowl and then the handle that is used to turn the grinding wheel.  In most cases, you will be given several sized wheels to use to vary how fine you want to grind or puree the food that you are using.

One of the best ways to make use of a food mill is to make your own sauce or gravy.  Instead of using bottled, prepared sauces, you can get the tomatoes, blanch and skin them and then put them through the food mill.  You can make it a fine consistency or change the wheel and make it garden style if you prefer.  Regardless, you will be using fresh ingredients and have a sauce without all of the nasty preservatives that are usually used in jarred sauces.  The flavor difference will be incredible and the money that you save will add a few digits to your bank account.

Another use for a food mill is to make your own preserves.  Now I don’t know about you, but something that bothers a lot of people is that there simply is not enough fruit in the preserves when they eat them.  Now is your chance to rectify that as you can put in as much as you like and make sure that there is literally a piece of fruit in every spoonful that you put on your sandwich or morning toast.

Another great use for a food mill is to use them to make baby food.  Like everything else that is served in a jar, they are loaded with salts, sugars and other preservatives that mask the flavor of the real food.  This is no way for your baby to learn about food.  Once again, it is also a great way to save money.  For the cost of a single jar, you can buy enough ingredients to make several meals for your child. Every penny counts in today’s economy and the savings will quickly add up.

If you have soured on the taste of foods, look at the type of food that you are eating.  If you find that you are regularly using prepared sauces and such, it is time to fight back and rediscover the true taste of food.  The time you spend preparing the items with a food mill will not only pay you off in the wallet, but your taste buds will be thanking you as well.