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Product Loss When Using Tamis/Lab Sieve

robert.c.brown15

Hey Guys,

I recently purchased a 60 mesh lab sieve from affordablesieves.com. I love it. I have made carrot puree, asparagus puree, and today I made Thomas Keller's/Joel Robuchon's puree of potatoes. I basically just took around a pound of potatoes, added 7 tablespoons of butter (didn't want to make it a full stick!) and somewhere between 3/4 and 1 cup of heavy cream. I like to think it was closer to 3/4 of a cup, but it probably wasn't. I didn't need all that butter (it basically turned the potatoes into a dough) but this was my first time and I didn't want to chance it.

Anyway, in each instance, and especially the potato puree, I ended up with much less than when I started.

Now I know, not everything goes through the sieve, but the amount of effort and work (literally sweating and pushing stuff through for 15 minutes plus) makes me feel bad about losing so much product. 6 cups of mashed potatoes ends up turning into 2 cups of potato puree (I'm kinda just making those numbers up to get my point across but it was probably around that ratio). For the asparagus puree I eventually also just gave up as I had enough and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get all of it to go through.

I am using a flexible and plastic ateco bowl scraper. Should I just use my hands to push it through? I did today along with the bowl scraper and I guess that worked and it kept my hand from cramping up, but made a mess. Do I need to periodically flip the tamis over and scrape the puree that has been pushed through into a bowl to "make room" for more of the un-pureed product to be pushed though?

Is it common to have a decent amount of product loss when using a tamis? Am I doing something wrong? There does come a point where I just decide I don't have the endurance to push all of the product through for the next 45 minutes because I do eventually want to eat. Is using a tamis commonly something that takes a decent amount of time and taking 15 to 30 minutes to puree something isn't out of the ordinary?

I am new to using a tamis and I'm just going off of my own instincts so please let me know if I'm approaching this the wrong way.

Thank you for taking the time to help me and educate me! I do truly appreciate it.

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Comments

robert.c.brown15

Thanks for the help guys! I guess it is the blender. I'm just going to have to get used to using the immersion blender and losing some product as I can't afford or have any room for a blender. Definitely something for the next apartment though!

seijoed

On a side note cleaning out a potato blend sucks....

Ben_Johnson_34605

Almost certainly the problem is the way you are processing before passing. Immersion blenders simply don't have power that a good countertop blender has. You should have no problem passing carrot puree through a #60 sieve. We do most of our purees through #80 and often #120. As for the potato puree. You don't want to use a mixer because you end up over working the starch. If you don't have a food mill available, you can break them apart with a fork or spoon or even a courser sieve like a #10. If you cook them sous vide, you can break them apart in the bag before passing.

robert.c.brown15

@Brendan Lee, I forgot to mention that I use a stick blender for the asparagus and carrots. It is effective but not as much as a good blender. I usually have a few different textures because it can't seem to blend it all, so I have really fine to somewhat coarse. With the potatoes I did not have a food mill or ricer so I use an electric mixer and adding the butter as it went.

Sorry I forgot to mention that. I guess having a vitamix would make it easier to push things through too as it would then be uniformly pureed.

If I add water or stock to the vegetable I am pureeing I then try to let it rest on the tamis for 10 minutes or so to let the water drip through. But the 60 mesh is so fine that the water typically stays in the puree. Do I need to let it sit for even longer or should I put it in a bowl sieve I have to let the water drip and then transfer the puree to the tamis to push through?

Brendan_Lee_56950

I almost always puree first before pushing through a tamis. Like for the asparagus I would run it through a blender or stick blender before pushing through to make things a lot easier.