A salad spinner means you can stop buying expensive pre-cut greens and buy loose ones instead which are cheaper. When lettuce is cut with metal blades it starts to turn brown quickly. Bagging also causes the leaves to lose their nutrients and flavor. Using washed and dried greens is the best way to make a tasty salad because they do not go mushy and the dressing clings to them better.
Loose greens stay fresh much longer than bagged salads, so you might want to think about investing in a good spinner. These machines are not essential and you can roll washed greens in a kitchen towel, and then spin them outdoors holding the towel firmly. A mesh laundry bag is another way to do this but a salad spinner is faster and easier to use.
You can get pull-cord spinners or pump ones and both are manual. Pull-cord models are faster but the cords can break. Pump ones are operated with a lever or have a plunger.
A Few Handy Tips
These machines can be used for more than spinning salad. You can rinse fresh berries in three parts water and one part white vinegar before using them, and then spin them in the machine to get them dry. Spinach, herbs, and grapes can be dried in there. You can also use the machine as a serving bowl or colander.
It is best to distribute the ingredients evenly in the machine, then add the dressing and spin lightly so the dressing coats the greens evenly. Do not add too much to the machine. Wash the lettuce in four or five cup batches instead of packing the spinner full.
A full one will be less effective at drying the greens. Do not spin the machine too fast either. This might be the fastest way to dry the greens but it is also a good way to bruise them.
If you like to eat salads you will find yourself using the product a lot. They actually work quite easily. The outer bowl is made from stainless steel or clear plastic. The inner bowl is shaped like a colander and this is where you put the greens to wash them and dry them.
Which Salad Spinner to Buy
The two best salad spinners, according to most reviews, are the Zyliss Easy Spin and the Oxo Good Grips. Such a tool will cost between twenty and thirty dollars. You might want to spend three times that and get a stainless steel one but unless you use the machine more days than not, it is probably not worth spending the extra when a plastic one does the job just as well.
The Oxo Good Grips spinner works with a pump and this one is also dishwasher safe; this one is thirty dollars. The Zyliss model is a bit more economical but still works well. This is a pull-cord model and, like the Oxo one, it has a non-slip base. If you do not need one for yourself, what about buying one for a Christmas present or birthday gift for another keen cook in the family?