Originally published at: The Cuisinart Salad Spinner is fun! | Boing Boing
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I’m currently on my second of these, and love it. They’re cheap, effective, and easy to use. The reason I’m on my second is because the bowls tend to crack on me after a while. I’m going to need a third by the end of the year.
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Beat me to it, I recognized those zero gravity toilet instructions immediately. this was my favorite pastebomb for IRC in the 90s 
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centrifuges are just cool. maybe I missed my calling as a lab tech or nuclear physicist
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I was a (mere) grad-student in a Biochem lab when an analytical ultracentrifuge exploded. What an impressive sound! The 1.5 inch (3.8 cm) steel guard sleeve contained the flying bits. The center pieces (the spinny bits) had to be regularly measured that they weren’t showing signs of metal fatigue; somehow this one escaped notice. The Sorvall technician who was brought in to restore the mess said it was officially referred to as “spontaneous disassembly”; always admired that nice corporate phraseology.
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it’s crazy how much energy can be contained in such simple/compact phenomena
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I’ve got an infographic that explains it pretty well if you want.
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Does the lid disassemble on this one? We have an old plastic one where there is no easy way to clean the interior of the lid/spin mechanism, so you either have to pretend it doesn’t need to be cleaned or flush it with wasteful amounts of water. If we ever get another salad spinner it will (a) be made of metal or glass, and (b) have a mechanism which is easy to clean.
BTW, there’s something strange going on with the one Mark linked:
Where is the stainless steel fabric? Is it chain mail? And why is the monk on the bottom-left meditating over the spinner?
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Few know the truth about the salad spinner.
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OK, I’ll open the box of worms…
The lettuce leaf spinner is actually one of the most useful single use items in a kitchen, both domestic and commercial. I literally (yep literally) can’t think of another single use gadget that is more useful…
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Pictograms keep it simple.
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Bah, OXO’s version is much easier: just push. None of this spinning ****. ATK recommends it over anything else. You can even get a green one just like the Cuisinart one.
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I’ve never had a name brand salad spinner, but down here in S America, this is a very common kitchen instrument to have, and most local plastics companies of decent size make them.
Cleaning under the grid on the bottom of the lid used to be a pain for me, until I realized that mine, like most assembled plastics, was just snapped together on pins and so I can actually periodically pull the grid part off the smooth part, clean well, and then snap back together for a few more months of usage. I do rinse it well enough after each use to ensure no little bits of lettuce are under there; otherwise I’d probably have to unsnap much more often and who knows how many dis-and-re-assembles it’s got in it before becoming deformed?
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hear hear!
And I’m so pared-down I have never owned a pasta colander, but wouldn’t dream of not having a lettuce centrifuge.
Writing this, I realize that all this time I could have been using the mesh inner bowl from my lettuce centrifuge to strain pasta, but as other commenters have pointed out, it is unwise to get a lettuce centrifuge grimy.
Also, I’ve found that storing the rest of the washed greens in the same centrifuge in the fridge is the best way to keep them fresh many days (always do a second drain of water from bottom before storing).
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Oh, I want!
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But can you get them there with stainless steel fabric?
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No. The cost of imported steel is one of the major hurdles to lowering poverty, squalor and lack of access to essential infrastructure.
So we do what we can.
Here in Argentina, the salad spinner fabric is sterling silver, while in Chile’s Atacama mining region, it’s copper.
I don’t want to brag, but you’d really flip out if I were to let you use my special occasion Bolivian salad spinner, with its pure lithium fabric.
Or the Uruguayan one. They unfortunately are short on many metal resources but do weave a nice salad spinner fabric from capybara whiskers. Costs a little more but worth every cent.
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This is a good thing not to have as the pasta water is the “liquid gold” for most pasta sauces. I’ve recently taken to taking the pasta directly from the pot with tongs or a slotted spoon into the ‘sauce’ pan as the starchy water will give the sauce a glossy sheen with 30 odd seconds of stirring/ tossing. Trust me, this is a very traditional Italian technique.
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Hi AnthonyC, since you have experience with two of these, let me ask you: Does the basket always perfectly clicks in its place with the upper disk with the little triangles? Or, do you ever need to reopen the lid to adjust the basket in order to get a good smooth rotation? We bought one of these and were very disappointed about this behavior; it took many tries to get this to rotate smoothly (after testing it (empty) multiple times, we returned it). So, now I wonder if this issue is fairly standard. Maybe your answer will help others as well. Thank you.
