OXO Steel Salad Spinner

Product Information

The humble salad spinner may seem like an unnecessary kitchen tool, but we beg to differ: It's revolutionary when it comes to yielding crispy, fresh greens. The centrifugal force created by spinning pulls out dirt particles hidden in the ribs and crevices of your lettuce, spinach, arugula, and more while drawing out any excess liquid. Warding off that lingering moisture helps keep your salad from getting soggy or moldy, but also maintains the consistency and flavor of your salad dressing. Apart from helping to achieve the perfect salad, these handy gadgets are also useful in washing large batches of herbs, cleaning cruciferous vegetables like broccoli or brussel sprouts, and washing berries.

This salad spinner holds approximately 5 quarts of lettuce. The internal colander is made of stainless steel, and the outside bowl, which can also double as a serving bowl, is made of plastic. This combination creates an optimum salad spinner that cleans your lettuce with precision every time and also saves you the trouble of finding a serving bowl. Mueller Salad Spinner: An unusual “pulling bar” spin mechanism generated more force than a simple hand crank, but this still ranked toward the bottom of our drying tests. It was also unusually loud—enough to scare a (skittish) dog out of the room during testing. The process saves time and effort without compromising the quality of the salad—expelling the excess water ensures the lettuce is crunchy and not soggy.

At more than double the cost of the plastic model, occasional users may not justify the additional expense. All of the chefs and experts we consulted recommended some form of an Oxo salad spinner, and the plastic model comes in both 8- and 10-inch diameters. Chef Abra Berens, author of the book Ruffage, sums up the merits of her "very trusty Oxo salad spinner," saying, "I've always had a little one and then asked for the larger version for a wedding present. Fifteen and ten years later, respectively, they are still going strong. I use the little one for herbs and the big one for greens of all sorts. I also tend to use the basket to rinse fruit like berries and then let them drip dry in the base of the bowl. I'm sure there are other brands and options out there, but until these two break, I won't look!" John Sommerall, who is a professional chef and the editorial project manager, food-research and testing for Dotdash Meredith, says when it comes to shopping for a salad spinner, people need to consider size, design, ease of use and cleaning, and the spinner’s value. One reviewer wrote: “A good sturdy product. Pour fresh water into the hole, spin and drain out of the same hole, a real good worker. I make lots of different salads and prep works takes a lot time so this is a real time saving gem in the kitchen.”

Salad spinners will get lettuce almost completely dry–about 90% of the way with a good quality model. Freshly-cleaned lettuce will last longer and experience less wilting if they're rolled up in towels after spinning since the towels will absorb the remaining moisture while keeping the leaves from drying out. The bowl of OXO's Steel Salad Spinner is just beautiful: Crafted of brushed stainless steel, it has a beautifully rounded shape and a grippy underside. We'd buy it on its own as a serving bowl…vthe fact that it comes as part of a salad spinner is just a bonus. Drying Test Three: If the salad spinner is able to successfully dry seven-and-a-half ounces of mixed greens, dry 10 ounces of mixed greens, to further test its ability to handle a large amount of lettuce. Weigh the greens (in grams) prior to washing, after washing, and after drying. Time how long each spinner takes to dry the greens.

A salad spinner is a kitchen tool used to wash and dry salad greens. The spinning motion removes excess water, making for crisp, fresh greens. There are a variety of salad spinners available on Kitchenware Australia & New Zealand, each with their own unique features. Clean Up: After each test, wash the salad spinner by hand. At the end of testing, run the dishwasher-safe components of each spinner through the dishwasher to ensure they come out unscathed. Sometimes, you can find an outer bowl with a flow-through design with holes in the bottom to drain the water as you spin. The advantage is that the lettuce dries faster, but this has to be done over a sink to avoid messy spillage. Many types of salad spinners have an outer bowl that doesn't feature holes in the bottom, though. The upside is that you can do your spinning on the counter, but you must dump your bowl periodically to drain the water. There are some models, like the Westmark, that have pour spouts that allow for a more convenient draining experience. When effectively stored in a salad spinner, lettuce can last up to a week. Spinning off the excess moisture also allows the greens to remain crisp and bright since they aren’t being bogged down by liquid. Additionally, many salad spinners double as an airtight container, which helps your vegetables stay fresher for longer.

Afterwards, you can use the dry parts of the towel to pat any excess water drops off the greens. In our testing, the amount of water remaining in the greens was a little more than the most effective salad spinners on this list, but it performed just as well as some of the others. And because big droplets were patted away at the end, the greens seemed dry enough.When preparing salads for a larger crowd, like if you are hosting a summer garden party, having a larger salad spinner is ideal. The Norpro Deluxe Salad Spinner, gives chefs plenty of room to prep larger salads and vegetables. Given that most salad spinners are made out of various types of plastic, I’d recommend always using soapy warm water and a sponge to clean your spinner regardless of whether or not they’re marketed as dishwasher safe,” he suggests. “If small leaves or debris do become lodged, I recommend using a skewer, cake tester, or soft brush to clear each hole.” As far as bowl material goes, for efficient spinning, you need to be able to see your product to know when it's dry. Clear bowls are best for this, but they're not as attractive if you want to also use them as a serving bowl. Stainless steel bowls tend to be more expensive but make attractive serving bowls. Salad spinners are not only useful for washing and drying salad leaves but they can also be used for a variety of other tasks in the kitchen. For example, they can be used to wash and dry herbs, berries, and other fruits and vegetables. Jennifer Zyman is a Senior Commerce Writer for Food & Wine and a former restaurant critic with a culinary school degree and over 15 years of food writing experience. Her work has appeared in Atlanta Magazine, Bon Appetit, Eater Atlanta, The Kitchn, Local Palate, National Geographic, Simply Recipes, Southern Living, and Thrillist. For this piece, she tested each salad spinner side by side.

Sometimes you only need a petite spinner that stores compactly but has the oomph of larger models. The Oxo Good Grips Little Salad and Herb Spinner is just right for small portions of lettuce, berries, and especially bunches of fresh herbswith its 2.5-quart basket. We found that it easily accommodated two heads of radicchio for one test, two bunches of cilantro for another, and one pint of blueberries for a third. Handle-style spinners: Easier on the hand than the knob variety, a handle-style salad spinner is also difficult to store because of the awkward shape. The extended handle is attached to the gears, and as you manually spin the handle, the basket spins.Over the years, Oxo has made a name for itself in producing top quality salad spinners that don’t break the bank, and the Oxo Good Grips Salad Spinner is no exception. For each test, we noted how operating the pump or knob felt and how much strength was required to start and continue spinning. After recording the responsiveness of each spinner and the level of stability the base provided, we saw how many pumps or spins it took to completely clean and dry the produce, noting any difficulty in stopping the spinner once it got going.