Colander

Colander

Colander

Bowl-shaped kitchen utensil with holes in it used for draining food

Not to be confused with Calendar, Calender, or Coriander.
For other uses, see Colander (disambiguation).

A colander (or cullender) is a kitchen utensil used to strain foods such as pasta or to rinse vegetables.[1] The perforated nature of the colander allows liquid to drain through while retaining the solids inside. It is sometimes also called a pasta strainer or kitchen sieve.

An enamelled colander

Description and history

Traditionally, colanders are made of a light metal, such as aluminium or thinly rolled stainless steel. Colanders are also made of plastic, silicone, ceramic, and enamelware.[2]

The word colander comes from the Latin colum, meaning sieve.[1]

Types

A mated colander pot showing the colander fully inserted into the bottom pot, and slightly lifted out of it
  • Bowl- or cone-shaped – the traditional colander
  • Mated colander pot[3]

Other uses

Pastafarian protester wears a colander while showing an icon of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

The colander in the form of a pasta strainer was adopted as the religious headgear of the religion Pastafarianism in deference to the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[4]

Colanders are also used during solar eclipses to project multiple images of a partial eclipse onto the ground for safe viewing of the eclipse.[5][6]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "colander". merriam-webster.com. Merriam-Webster. 2011. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  2. [2]
    "Colander". CooksInfo.com. 15 October 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
  3. [3]
    "Mated Colander Pot". justcooking.in. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  4. [4]
    "Pastafarian protester carries an icon of the Flying Spaghetti Monster at Piazza XXIV Maggio square in Milan, Italy, on June 2, 2012". Wikimedia Commons.
  5. [5]
    "Annular Solar Eclipse Safety". NASA. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  6. [6]
    "How to observe an eclipse safely". BBC Sky at Night Magazine. BBC. Retrieved 25 August 2023.


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