Testing Spider Skimmers

Cook’s Country TV
Season 4, Episode 9: “Fried Chicken and Biscuits”
Snippet: Testing Spider Skimmers

Christopher Kimball: When I was a kid, a knife was a knife, a whisk was a whisk, and a skimmer was a skimmer. You only had one choice. Today we’re drowning in a sea of consumer choices, and we’re here with Adam, who’s going to sort out that sea so we don’t drown [laughs] when we go into the store. I mean, what is this? [holds up first skimmer; AR chuckles] This doesn’t look like a skimmer to me.

Adam Ried: [laughing] Too much choice for you, Chris?

CPK: What is this? This is, like, for kitty litter. [Points skimmer toward AR; AR chuckles]

AR: That counts as a skimmer. You can use it for kitty litter if you want. But not that one [pointing at the skimmer in CPK’s hand], please. You have to go buy your own.

CPK: That’s a big kitty.

AR: We’re going to do a little demonstration. [CPK puts down skimmer] So I want to drop these frozen French fries [camera cuts to him pouring fries into Dutch oven filled with hot oil] into the hot oil first. There—we’re going to let them fry. [oil sizzles; camera pans to counter with tester skimmers] We tested five different skimmers, and these are designed so that you can get food out of hot frying oil or boiling water really easily. Our five had a price range of $12 to $30, and there are a couple of basic items when it comes to these skimmers. One [gestures with first finger] is the material from which they’re made. This one [picks up first skimmer] is actually reinforced nylon, which is new to the market. This is sort of an interesting choice [places skimmer back on counter; CPK nods].

CPK: So if you put this in hot oil it’s not going to melt on you. [picks up first skimmer]

AR: It’s not going to melt on you.

CPK: Okay.

AR: Obviously you have metal skimmers like this one [picks up handles of two metal skimmers]. You’ll find a lot of them with wooden handles like this [picks up handle of another skimmer and then puts it back down]. Wood [waving hand in emphasis] absorbs some of the odors from the cooking oil, so we weren’t that crazy about that [crosses hands to signal dissatisfaction].

Second issue is the handle. You can see this one [camera cuts to close-up as he pick up nylon skimmer] comes straight out from the bowl. We prefer to have a little angle [picks up handle of one of the metal skimmers] like this one to keep our hand further away from the sides of the pot and the hot oil.

Third thing [holds out three fingers to emphasize], and very important here, is the design of the perforations. [Camera closes in on nylon skimmer in Dutch oven full of French fries] This is the cat litter scooper one with the small perforations [picks out some of the fries with skimmer]. And the idea is you want to drain the oil. You want the oil to be in the pot [places fries onto sheet pan lined with brown craft paper], and you want to put the fries there. And you can see [gestures with skimmer at oil stains on the brown craft paper] that we actually have fairly big stains on the brown craft paper there.

Let’s try this one [picks up one of metal skimmers] with the long slotted perforations. We’re going to take out more fries [scoops up fries from Dutch oven], let them drain for a second, and then put them [places fries on sheet pan] on the brown craft paper. And again [voice goes up in emphasis], you can see [points at scooped base of skimmer as camera closes in] we actually have dripping oil, because it pooled in these areas here [pointing at scooped base of skimmer where oil drips are visible]. That’s not ideal.

[Picks up mesh strainer] This was the best of all possible worlds. This one [scoops out fries] is the open wire mesh with an angled handle. You can see the oil drains right out really easily [places fries on sheet pan]. It doesn’t hold on to any of it, and you really don’t get much [points at oil stain left by fries] on the brown paper there. So this was our winner [pointing at mesh skimmer]. This is the WMF stainless steel mesh wok strainer. It’s $18, but it’s got a handle with a good angle to keep your hands away from the oil, it’s got that open mesh basket, it’s easy to pick up the food, and it’s a great skimmer.

CPK: So the winner at Cook’s Country is this great design [holding skimmer]. It’s the WMF stainless steel wok mesh strainer for $18. It leaves all that hot oil [pointing at Dutch oven] in the Dutch oven and not on your food.

View the full report of our Spider Skimmers testing

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH

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