Im-pressed

I had never heard of Kuhn Rikon until recently. My garlic press of choice had been the Susi garlic press, recommended by Jeff Smith, who was once seen all over PBS before the ignominious accusation of pedophilia drove him from the air, and then, he passed away. This man who did as much to popularize cooking as anyone, loved his Susi press.

But if he had ever had a chance to try the Kuhn Rikon 2315 Epicurean Garlic Press, I feel certain he would have raved over it. This thing is pricey, no doubt about it. It cost nearly 3 times the Susi, running a price of 40 dollars. But it looks sweet, and it crunches pretty sweet too. And more ingenious than that, it cleans well without the plastic insert device that was clearly the drawback of Susi. You had to keep this blue or red plastic thing that was meant to poke out the garlic skin so you could clean it.

Having said that, the Kuhn is still better pressing peeled garlic. You can press it with the peel still on, but it seems to do a better job if the peel is removed. Furthermore, it feels like it can only hold about one largish garlic clove at a time. But the pressure needed to crunch the garlic seems quite a bit less than the Susi press, and it looks absolutely great, resembling more a carpenter's tool than a kitchen gadget.

If you're willing to put some bucks to something nice, give this a try.