Huh -- the old one broke at 6, I bought a new one at 7:30, and yet I find I can't definitively say that they're good and I wouldn't want to be without one! They're just part of my salad habit.
On the bad side: They take up a lot of space, and that two-part spinning lid thingy is hard to clean. And they don't get the greens dry all by themselves, so you do still have to dry them further. (I roll mine in a kitchen towel.)
On the good side: Well, you have to fill something with water to submerge the lettuce (especially if it's CSA/farmer's market/otherwise actually grown in dirt, rather than being mysteriously and disturbingly clean like grocery store lettuce), and you have to get the worst of the water off of them somehow, and a salad spinner does the trick pretty well.
I looked at the collapsible ones, but the pull-string thing didn't pull smoothly even on the store model, so I replaced my old reliable OXO with a brand-new OXO.
Hah! Well, I mainly buy boxes of washed mixed greens or baby spinach, so it almost never comes up. If i buy a whole head of lettuce, i just rinse it well under running water, then sit it on a towel while I cook other things. *g*
Ah -- see, I wash everything. My kitchen habits are raccoonlike. Even though I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that if you wash prewashed greens you're more likely to introduce dangerous substances than to remove them, I still have to wash them.
I use a spinner to dry off veggies for stir-frying. The spinner's better for drying off firm, small objects, such as chopped bok choy, than for getting fluffy lettuce dry. I've spun salad greens in the spinner and they come out drier than they went in, but there's still enough water on them to make vinaigrettes slide right off if they don't also get shaken dry in a towel.
I always use a spinner; contra res, I find that it does get enough water off the greens to eliminate any need for a towel. I always spin them two or three times, tossing them a bit by hand in between so that different facets of the leaves are facing out. Even when I buy prewashed salad, there are often a few slimy bits in it (always, if I've let a few days go by before eating it), so it always needs to be washed and picked through again. And I find a spinner faster and easier than a towel.
Also, when my stepkids were younger, they loved to work it.
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resonant
(no subject)
Date: 8/25/10 01:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 8/25/10 01:29 am (UTC)On the bad side: They take up a lot of space, and that two-part spinning lid thingy is hard to clean. And they don't get the greens dry all by themselves, so you do still have to dry them further. (I roll mine in a kitchen towel.)
On the good side: Well, you have to fill something with water to submerge the lettuce (especially if it's CSA/farmer's market/otherwise actually grown in dirt, rather than being mysteriously and disturbingly clean like grocery store lettuce), and you have to get the worst of the water off of them somehow, and a salad spinner does the trick pretty well.
I looked at the collapsible ones, but the pull-string thing didn't pull smoothly even on the store model, so I replaced my old reliable OXO with a brand-new OXO.
How do you wash and dry your greens?
(no subject)
Date: 8/25/10 01:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 8/25/10 02:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 8/25/10 06:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 8/25/10 04:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 8/25/10 12:24 pm (UTC)Also, when my stepkids were younger, they loved to work it.
(no subject)
Date: 8/30/10 03:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 8/30/10 01:25 pm (UTC)