Colander vs. Strainer: Differences Between the Kitchen Tools

A colander is a silicone or metal bowl with drainage holes that chefs and home cooks use to drain liquids from solids, typically to rinse vegetables or drain pasta or ground meats. The filtration level can range from large holes to small holes to stainless-steel coarse-mesh netting (though netting is more common in strainers than colanders). Colanders are typically as large as a cooking bowl to accommodate family-sized portions of produce, pasta, or meat.

Many heavy-duty colanders have handles on either side of the bowl and a base to allow them to stand on their own and serve as a decorative storage space for washed produce. There are also collapsible colander models for easy storage.

A strainer is a wire-mesh silicone or metal kitchen sieve that chefs and home cooks use to separate liquids from fine solids in cooking, often in situations where small solids or pieces of sediment (like tea leaves or fruit seeds) require finer filtration. The filtration level can range from fine-mesh strainers to options with larger holes. Strainers come in different sizes, from the size of a teacup to a large-size cooking bowl, and many have a long handle or hooks that allow them to rest over the top of a bowl.

In both appearance and uses, strainers significantly overlap with two other kitchen gadgets— sifters—which you can use for sifting flour, powdered sugar, or other powdered solids in baking—and a chinois, a conical sieve for making custard and straining soups and sauces.

While colanders and strainers are pieces of cookware with overlapping uses as kitchen utensils, there are a few technical differences between them:

• Size and shape: Colanders are typically larger than strainers and feature a base to stand independently. Strainers vary in size and usually have a handle or two without a base.
• Filtration level: Colanders usually have bigger holes throughout, providing a moderate level of filtration (some modern colanders have borrowed the stainless steel mesh of strainers). Strainers, on the other hand, are usually meshed to reach a high level of filtration.
• Uses: Since colanders have moderate filtration, they can only separate liquid from large pieces of food, like rinsing vegetables or draining pasta. Alternatively, strainers have fine filtration and can provide a wider range of straining services, from draining pasta to straining out fine pieces of sediment like fruit pulp and purées or tea leaves. You can also use colanders in more decorative ways, like countertop containers for washed produce.

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