Ricer Advice needed

[thinks too much]

I took a great cooking class in Florence in the fall and learned to make gnocci. So exciting that I bought the S.O. a potato ricer, so we could try it at home. (Kids, don't try this at home). Admission time: I went down to the local hardware store and bought an $11 ricer. It's a garlic press style with 2 hole plates. We cooked the potatoes on the bed of salt, like the teacher said. Imagine our horror as the handles began to warp by the 3rd potatoe.

Any recommendations for a sturdy enough potato ricer to do the job properly along with price guesstimations. FYI, the Williams Sonoma ricer online is $32.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/produc...

[pikawicca]

Whatever you do, do NOT buy the WS ricer: we wore out three robust young men on Thanksgiving using this device.

[meadandale]

I have a cheapo plastic Progressive International ricer with metal discs that I got about 10 years ago. I wouldn't recommend you get something more fancy than this. If you are gonna spend $30 on a ricer, why not just spend an extra $20 and get a food mill? A food mill is way more versatile than a ricer.

[markabauman]

I have a ricer from a company called Frieling and it works great. Yes, it's made in China, but was reasonably priced and has held up for many gnocchi, mashed potato, etc. uses. Comes with 3 different size plates.

www.frieling.com

[janniecooks]

Look for a china cap (chinois) and pestle; you can put a boatload of potatoes in one. I inherited my mother's after she left this earth, hers stands on a three-legged frame but I'm not sure the frames are made anymore. Surfa's has a number of china caps and the roller pestle, but no frame alas. You'd just need to use a deep enough bowl to accommodate the peak of chinois.

http://www.surfasonline.com/productli...

[souvenir]

We have an earlier generation ricer W-S model, around 5 years old. It is similar in shape to the one that OCAnn has. It was around $20 as well, similar materials to the current one at W-S. Our has been very sturdy and works quite well.
Since we are usually making mashed potatoes in large quantities when using it, if I had had the choice at the time, I might have gone for this larger W-S one. It seems to me that in this case, the higher price is justified by the larger volume it handles at a time.

[OCAnn]

We purchased our $20 potato ricer back in 2007 from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000... . It has worked well even through heavy holiday use. It's a workhorse, but also make sure that your potatoes are cooked thoroughly....

[DishyDiva]

I have the Oxo ricer and can't say that I'm crazy about it. I find it cumbersome to use (and clean) and doesn't hold a lot of volume so it takes a lot longer to do the job. I regret buying it.

Having watched the video, the $32 W-S ricer looks much better because it has fewer moving parts (the press in the Oxo flops back and forth), is larger and is perforated all-around so you can rice potatoes more efficiently. I also like the fact that the top arm detaches for washing in the dishwasher. If I had known about this model, I wouldn't have bought the Oxo.

[OCAnn]

You're right about the volume: we cut russets in 1/2 before ricing, although the smaller new potatoes can be riced whole.

On the cleaning, we throw ours in the dishwasher for easy cleaning....

[free sample addict aka Tracy L]

I agree w/ you OCAnn. I killed a ricer one day with 2 undercooked potatoes.