KitchenAid Fruit & Vegetable Strainer Set with Food Grinder Attachment

I took 32 pounds of fresh tomatoes from the crate to the stovetop in 3 hours without working up a sweat or making a mess. I'm really amazed at how well this thing works. All I did was wash my tomatoes and cut them into wedges; the mixer processed them as fast as I was able to feed them into the hopper, with no heavy pushing or stopping to adjust anything. Reading some reviewers' bad experiences with cones breaking after running the waste material back through a second time, I didn't try that; even so, I got 12 quarts pulp/juice, which reduced to 6 quarts finished pasta sauce. Very, very happy with my sauce-making routine now. Life is too short to spend it blanching and peeling tomatoes.Couple tips:1. As others have mentioned, get your bowls, jugs, whatever, right up under where your product and your waste are ejected; if you do this, you shouldn't have a splatter or mess problem. I put down a layer of plastic to keep everything clean, but at the end, it was still dry. It can be a very neat process if you set everything up closely.2. If you're doing a large amount of processing, place the mixer where it's an optimal height for you to be repetitively putting things into the hopper. The countertop may be fine, but if you're short, or if like me you want to sit on a barstool or kitchen chair instead of standing there for hours, position it lower. I found that setting it up on a piano bench, with a padded table mat in between to protect the bench, was perfect for me to be able to sit on a barstool, continuously reach for more materials from the countertop, and easily drop tomato wedges into the hopper. Getting your setup right makes the process a breeze.3. For berries or small items, you don't have to worry about this, but for tomatoes, apples, or anything larger than the fairly small hopper hole, don't skimp on cutting your pieces small enough. You may think that going from quarters to eighths in your wedge sizes is more trouble than it's worth, but if you're having to use that stomper to push food down, the pieces are too big, and it will really slow you down as well as become physically taxing. Any extra time you spend cutting a bit smaller will be more than made up once your pieces start flying down the hopper without needing to be really pushed. The spiral worm will grab the food and pull it down if it's small enough.4. A lot of people who otherwise loved this gizmo have commented that the strainer cone is a pain to clean. But the reason for this is that the remaining pulp is stuck in the tiny strainer holes, half on the inside and half on the outside. If you take a reasonably stiff scrubbing brush (plastic is fine, no need to go for heavy steel bristles) and just scrub the OUTSIDE of the cone, rinsing both inside and out as you go, you'll find that in a minute or two, you've torn the pulp in two enough that it falls off on the outside and rinses cleanly away on the inside. Like so:1. Start by clearing off as much as you can of the outermost, squishy part of the pulp by squeezing the cone through your clean hands (this can go into the pot with the rest of your pulp/juice).2. If the hole in the cone tip is plugged with food, poke that out with a chopstick or skewer, or blow into the large end of the cone and it will pop out.3. Holding the cone with the small tip upwards, give the entire outside a good 30-second scrubscrubscrub under running water. Rinse, turn the cone upside down and rinse out the inside. You won't get it clean in one go but it will be a good start.4. Repeat step 3 until the outside is clean (maybe 3 or 4 times total), and you should find that the inside rinses free of debris! if not, scrub the outside in the same spot where the inside still needs it, and like magic, it should come out without your having to resort to digging blindly with a bottle brush.5. Once the debris is cleared, the cone can go in the dishwasher top rack, or just easily washed in hot soapy water.The one tip to make sure this works without elbow grease is to NOT WAIT. As soon as you finish processing your food, disassemble the attachment and clean the cone immediately. Leave it to sit, and you're looking at long hot soaking and a bit more nuisance.Compared to peeling/seeding/straining foods by hand, using this attachment is practically recreational, and the amount of time saved would be worth it even if that weren't so. I haven't used the grinder part yet, only the strainer part, but even so I feel that this gizmo was worth the money!

We first bought the FVSMGA (Fruit Vegetable Strainer with Meat Grinder Assembly) perhaps 15-20 years ago from Bed Bath & Beyond. It works BEAUTIFULLY. The only issue is the funnel holder on top is really small - it should have been designed larger to hold more apples while running them through. But, we are "over that" and use it - we wouldn't make applesauce without it.When our kids were really little, we made an average of 100 quarts per fall - enough so that we could enjoy anywhere from 2-3 quarts per week. The quantity was great for our larger family.The process is really simple. Our favorite apples for sauce is Ruby Macintosh. Or, use a mix of Macs and Cortland, or a mix of any other favorites. We like pink applesauce, so use apples (like the Ruby Macs) that are very ripe. The deep red skin will create a pink applesauce.Wash the apples, cut in quarters or a little more than that. NO NEED to peel or seed. Just cut away any parts that aren't good. Place a larger saucepan on the stove, add about 1c water, toss in about 5-6 cut up apples at a time - and cover. Steam for a few minutes - just until the apples soften. Spoon the apples out with a slotted spoon so as not to bring much liquid along. We usually spoon the apples into a Pyrex glass or something with a handle on it. Then, scoop it into the food mill on your Kitchenaid. The applesauce comes out in it's spot, and all the seeds, skin and core come out the back end spout.If you have 2-3 people working on it, it goes pretty quick. One to wash, cut the apples and keep them cooking, one to scoop the cooked apples into the strainer/spout, and another to handle the mixer and push the apples through.This year (Fall 2020) we processed about six bushels apples.We are still using our very first FVS!! It has held up well.We see that Kitchenaid has discontinued it, and has revamped the design. I've not used the new one, but have read reviews that it doesn't fit the regular mixers without a special nut or bolt or something. Ours works great. I was thrilled to find another on Amazon, and bought another entire set to have as a backup in case something goes wrong or breaks on this one. One part, the worm it's called (the long white plastic piece with spirals on it) is showing some weakness but still works great. I was able to get a replacement through Kitchenaid fairly cheap. Then, I found yet another complete FVSMGA and bought yet another one. Now, I have my perfectly fine original, plus two back-ups.We live on a farm and process a lot of meats, vegetables and fruits. We can a lot of foods and therefore, have three stand mixers. Our farm has three kitchens so I am able to keep a mixer and the attachments at each location.If you buy this - MAKE SURE You get the one that says MGA (meat grinder assembly) included. You cannot use the Fruit and Vegetable strainer without the meat grinder assembly. It has parts that the FVS require.For as much food as we process each harvest time, I would be lost without this. To have one perfectly fine set and two brand new back-ups, may be overkill and a little ridiculous. But, these last, and they speed up our applesauce process WAY too much not to have it.If you're able to find this full set and it's in the $100 range, seriously consider getting it while you can. I wouldn't mind trying out the new style, but from what I've read and what I've been told by KitchenAid, it's not quite like the one I've got.Why stop making a great product? Shrugs. I don't know.If you read my review to the end, thank you. I know it's long - but sometimes you need the full story before making an investment in a product you're not familiar with. This full set has our seal of approval - we would be lost without it. Our friends and neighbors have often asked to borrow it (um.... here's your chance, get your own!!) Seriously, though, it's a great investment. A little time consuming to clean it, but take care of it and you'll get at least 20 years out of yours, as we have!

This is the first attachment I've purchased for my Kitchenaid stand mixer with the main purpose of processing 1 bushel of tomatoes for canning. It did this job very well and saved me hours of blanching, peeling and seeding. I processed the tomatoes raw, only having washed, cored and cut into quarters.The only thing that I didn't expect was that with my 6qt raised bowl mixer, this attachment ends up being quite high off of the counter and you can end up with quite a bit of juice slash from the "good" end. As I kept adjusting my setup I found that an enormous mixing bowl to catch the "good" juice and pulp was best for me. High walls and large diameter of the catching bowl stopped most of the splashes, although I did need an apron and to wipe down both the machine and the wall afterward.This hilarious looking setup I created with 2 bowls a cutting board and a plastic freezer container (shown in my picture) was well worth the hours I saved blanching and peeling by hand.For those who have mentioned the consistency is too runny, just remember that a tomato is mostly made of water and the sauce needs to be reduced by cooking it for hours. I had 2 pots of sauce going and had best results using an enamel coated cast iron Dutch oven compared to a standard stainless steel stock pot. The sauce cooked down and looks & tastes fantastic.Last point - I did run the waste though the strainer a second time. The first time through definitely left a lot of good stuff in the waste, but the waste on the second round was almost as thick as ground beef and was made up of just seeds and skin. *The 3rd pic shows the waste after it has been passed though the strainer a second time.

Gute Ergänzung zur Kitchenaid muss nur schnell gereinigt werden, da es sonst zu Verfärbungen kommen kann.

¡Son 2 por el precio de menos de uno!Ya probé el molino de carne, y quedé bastante satisfecha. El manual recomienda pasar 2 veces la carne de res, y eso ayuda a que salgan los últimos trozos que se quedan en el tubo.Le puse también unos trozos de tocino, ¡e hice unas albóndigas deliciosas!

Making passata the easy way, no skins, no seeds.

We canned two bushels of tomato sauce in one weekend this year with the help of this little attachment. This made short work of juicing the tomatoes, about an hour and half for each bushel, with very low effort. The previous year saw us using a hand-cranked strainer, that required us to skin the tomatoes before using, and that took a whole day to juice the tomatoes and we didn't get nearly as much liquid.Long story short, this thing is worth every penny.

Excellent purchase, like every kitchenaid accessory I've purchased. It delivers and delivers well.