Can you tell me about food mills?

[Llyra]

I'm thinking I'd like to buy one, but I don't know enough about them to know what to look for. The only food mill I've ever had was one of those little plastic baby-food mills. I think I mostly want to use it for preserving-- I'm sick and tired of peeling tomatoes and apples and peaches, and I kind of have the notion that I can puree those in the food mill, and it'll strain out the peels FOR me-- right? Or am I totally getting this wrong?

Anyway, is there one that's particularly good? The reviews on Amazon are very mixed, and I hate to wind up with something that won't work or isn't going to hold up to use.

I think I'd like to spend no more than about $70 on this. I see cheaper ones for like $30 or $40, but I don't know how to evaluate if they're any good. Nobody seems to have them in the stores, locally, either.

[Adaline'sMama]

I love my food mill. I got it at a flea market for about $4. I think its about 20 years old, but it works great. I use it for pretty much anything youd use a food processor to puree, and you get way more. There is really just not very much waste. I cant find a brand on it at all...

yep, no more peeling.

[425lisamarie]

I have had the cuisipro one for several years. I don't use it much, but when I do it works very well. It DOES strain the tomato peels. I do'nt remember mine being as much as I just saw when I googled. They seem to be around $100, though mine does NOT have the nice rubber handle top, it's just very basic looking. I really don't think I paid much more than $50

[Arduinna]

I have the Rösle food mill, and I love it.

[SpuglyRoo]

I bought my food mill for baby food and just recently used it to make apple butter. It definitely strained out all the peels, cores and seeds from the apples, it saved me a lot of time! You can see pictures of it on my blog.

It is metal, so you can use it with hot foods, and it came with three grades of disks (coarse, medium, and fine). I think I got it from bed bath & beyond for $50 (they have coupons all the time so look for one first!). I like that it has rubber feet so it doesn't slide off the pot it is resting on. I'm glad I bought it, even though I didn't end up using it all that often for baby food (DS wanted real food, not mush). Now that I'm making sauces and canning and such it is saving me a ton of time. It sounds to me like this is the kind you are looking for.