# Chinois: Is a conical pestle necessary?



## rescaldo (Mar 10, 2016)

I'm looking into buying a fine Chinoise, and most recommendations for their use suggest using a ladle to push the puree through the sieve, but I've also seen a number of recommendations (mostly from manufacturers) to use a conical pestle.

So what should I use (i.e. which tool gives superior results)?

Thanks,

rescaldo


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## brianshaw (Dec 18, 2010)

A ladle works just fine and is generally easily available. The conical pestle is just one more thing to wash. It will get right down into the point of the chinoise, but so will the handle of a wooden spoon... of that amount of effort is required.


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## rescaldo (Mar 10, 2016)

What I'm hearing is that a conical pestle is a unitasker.


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## rpooley (Dec 1, 2015)

Mine came with the pestle included so, what are you gonna do?  It's nice, but not necessary.


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## chefross (May 5, 2010)

Personally,the pestle pushes through unwanted particulate that makes my stock cloudy.

I'll stick to the ladle thanks.


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

I don't ever remember using a pestle just a ladle or spoon. I think it is not entirely necessary myself.


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## chefbuba (Feb 17, 2010)

Always used a ladle.


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

For fruit, I use a conical pestle with a ridged chinois .If I use a ladle on a ridged one, it seems to take much longer. It seems only push

the fruit out of the bottom 2-3" of the chinois. I use a ladle on the rounded bottom mesh kind, always making sure the ladle is smaller than the bottom..

I've seen quite a few mesh chinois in the trash after someone constantly gets after it with a larger ladle. If the chinois is mesh and not rounded

I usually use a spoon.


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