Pressing Matters

I've been into garlic presses ever since the Frugal Gourmet (Jeff Smith) recommended the Susi garlic press (made by Zyliss) lo those many years ago. I had maybe 3-4 of these garlic presses. One of my former roommates once used it to prop something up in a pan and caused the garlic press to turn some odd shade of purple. But then, he did a lot of weird things. He'd make oatmeal, found it too hot to eat, stick in in the freezer, and completely forget it was there. He'd heat something up on the stove, and get bored, go to his room, and read until the pot was burning the food because he completely forgot he was cooking something. This happened not just once, but several times.

Recently, Cooks Illustrated rated garlic presses, and while the Susi press had been winners in years past, the newly declared winner was the Ruhn Kikon Epicurean garlic press. Now, this garlic press isn't exactly cheap. A relatively cheap garlic press might cost 7-8 dollars. The Susi press maybe 15 dollars. This one is 35 dollars.

Even so, it's really neat. The one huge problem with the Susi garlic press was cleaning it. It had a plastic insert you had to use to push the garlic pieces out of the holes. If you lost this piece (and it was easy to do), you'd have a hard time getting out the garlic.

Ruhn Kikon has a particularly clever solution. Most garlic presses require you put the cloves in a small bin, with the holes in the bottom. This bin is tiny, so it's hard to reach inside to clean it. The clever solution? Find a way so there's not a bin.

To give you an analogy. Think of a hallway. At the end of the hallway, there's a door. The door has large holes drilled through it. Imagine a large clove of garlic, big enough to fill the hallway, being pushed through the door with the holes. The garlic extrudes through the holes. But your fingers are huge too. They fill up the hallway, making it tough to clean the hallway.

Now, if the door would open up, then you could reach more easily reach the holes and clean up the press.

Although the mechanism isn't quite like that, it's close enough. Basically, the part with the holes swings away from the side walls, and makes it easier to clean. I still have to try it out mind you.

Oh, I got this mail order via Amazon through a company called The Handy House which surprisingly is about 40 miles north of here.

I had thought that it was lost somewhere along the way, and sent email to see what was going on. I had been used to sending stuff to my company where the receptionist usually lets me know it's arrived, and I picked it up. Instead, being US Postal mail, they did the "obvious" thing, which was put it in my "mailbox", which I rarely check since very few things end up there.

In any case, Ruthy, the person in charge, was very helpful, and was willing to send me a new one if I couldn't find it, but there was no need for that.

On the downside, I got one of the camera tickets. Apparently, I went through a red light and was caught. That kinda sucks.