Listen, I love simplifying a job as much as the next person. When I’m staring down the barrel of a five-pound bag of potatoes that need to be mashed, I would love to look to my food processor or stand mixer for an assist. However, neither of these appliances will make suitable spuds. For the silkiest, fluffiest mashed potatoes the key is to minimize the mashing, as they contain a lot of starch and will become gummy if overworked. Enter the potato ricer.
Think of a ricer like a large garlic press. Cooked potatoes go in a perforated hopper basket, then a lever gets pressed down to push the potatoes through small holes (generally the size of a grain of rice, hence ‘potato ricer’). As I mentioned above, the less you work potatoes, the less starch is released, resulting in a fluffier mash. There are other options for gentle mashing, like food mills or potato mashers, but if you’re looking for an easy way to mash potatoes that almost guarantees you won’t overwork them, a potato ricer is your best bet.
To find the best ones, I tested nine potato ricers. After 18 pounds of mashed potatoes, I landed on my two top picks.
The Winners, at a Glance
Joseph Joseph figured out a better way to rice potatoes with its unique ricer that uses a twisting motion rather than a lever. In my tests, it worked faster and was easier on the wrists. The simple design makes for easy cleanup with no extra parts or crevices for potato to hide in.
If you prefer the more typical press-style ricer, the Chef’n was a dream to use. The dual-gear hinge presses potatoes smoothly with less effort than other models. The handles are comfortable to use and the hopper basket detaches from the body for easy cleaning.
This heavy-duty ricer easily fit a whole potato, pressing the spuds out swiftly thanks to its all-over perforations.
The Tests
- Potato Test: I tested each ricer by, well, ricing potatoes. I used each ricer to make a batch of Kenji’s Ultra Fluffy Mashed Potatoes, noting how easy each ricer was to load with cooked potatoes, the time it took to rice them, and the final consistency of the mashed potatoes.
- Cleanup Test: I then washed each potato ricer by hand to evaluate the cleaning process.
What We Learned
All Potato Ricers Will Rice Potatoes
None of the ricers failed to produce silky, fluffy potatoes. I struggled to detect differences between almost all of the mashed potato samples processed with the various ricers. So, while there were almost no true ricing failures (at least among the pool of ricers I tested), some ricers were far more pleasant to use.
Simple and Sturdy Was Best
What separates a so-so ricer from a good ricer is a simple design and sturdy construction. The ricers I liked best lacked numerous crevices for mashed potato to make its way into. Sturdy construction was also key, as pressing potatoes through a ricer requires you to use pressure—and a flimsy handle is bound to bend or break over time.
Comfortable, well-sized handles were important as well. Hollow handles with metal edges (like those on the Bellemain and Priority Chef) pressed into my hands and fingers unpleasantly, while solid handles (like the handles on the Norpro and Chef’n) were more comfortable to use.
One Press Plate Was Enough
A few models we tested came outfitted with multiple plates with holes in various sizes. While this might be useful if you have plans to rice a variety of vegetables, if you’re mainly going to be using your ricer for potatoes, the extra parts seem unnecessary. As long as the holes were relatively small—between 1/16- and 1/8-inch—the resulting potatoes will come out silky smooth.
The hopper baskets on some models (like the RSVP and OXO) had holes only on the bottom (like a garlic press) while others had holes on the sides as well (like the Norpro and Williams Sonoma). While models with more holes had a minuscule speed advantage when ricing, that saved time slipped away when I had to scrape lingering potato tendrils from two to four surfaces instead of one.
The Criteria: What to Look for in a Potato Ricer
A good potato ricer should have an uncomplicated design with sturdy construction. I liked a ricer without a bunch of nooks and crannies for errant potatoes to smush into. Solid handles without sharp edges that were at least six inches long were the most comfortable and easy to use. A hopper basket with a wide opening to easily load potatoes in and small perforations make for a fine, fluffy mash. If you’re planning on making a variety of mashed vegetables having press plates with different-sized holes might be advantageous, but if you’re just going to be mashing potatoes, I don’t think they’re necessary.
Look for a model that can go in the dishwasher. (Every ricer I tested was dishwasher-safe.) I don’t see any reason to complicate your life by adding a tool to your kitchen that requires hand-washing when there are so many options that don’t.
Our Favorite Potato Ricers
What we liked: This model felt like someone thought about how to make a potato ricer better. It employs a different technique than every other model I tested. Instead of pressing two handles together vertically to force the potato through the hopper, you push two levers together—not unlike a pair of hedge clippers. The ricer is comprised of two separate pieces. The bottom half houses the hopper basket while the top is a cylinder-shape with a spiraled canal around the sides that screws snugly into the basket. Each side has one handle attached. After loading the basket with potatoes, you line up the two halves of the press using the red dots on either side for guidance and then press the two handles together. This twists the cylinder on the top and screws it down into the steel basket, pushing the riced potato out of the bottom.
This unorthodox design had no downsides. It’s easy to load potato into the hopper without the top half of the ricer in the way, there are fewer surfaces to scrape potato from, the handles are comfortable, and the twisting motion requires less effort than traditional ricers. On top of all of that, the detachable halves and crevice-free design made it one of the easiest models to clean.
What we didn’t like: I couldn’t find anything to complain about with this one, though I wish it came in different colors.
Key Specs
- Materials: Nylon and stainless steel
- Number of perforations: 106
- Distance between perforations: 1/8-inch
- Weight: 1.1 pounds
- Handle length: 6 3/4 inches
- Opening size: 3 1/8 inches
- Care instructions: Dishwasher-safe
What we liked: If you’d prefer a more traditional potato ricer this model from Chef’n is a great option. The “dual gear” hinge makes pressing potatoes through the hopper a noticeably easier and smoother experience.
While many models included both plungers and hopper baskets made of stainless steel, resulting in an unpleasant metal-on-metal scraping when pressing the ricer shut, the plunger on this model is made of the same plastic as the body. This makes for a smooth, scrape-free ricing experience. The long plastic handles are well-made and comfortable to hold. The stainless steel hopper is wide for easy loading and detachable for painless cleaning.
What we didn’t like: This model is heavier. It’s also the most expensive ricer I tested.
Key Specs
- Materials: Plastic and stainless steel
- Number of perforations: 271
- Distance between perforations: 1/16-inch
- Weight: 1.5 pounds
- Handle length: 6 1/2 inches
- Opening size: 3 1/4 inches
- Care instructions: Top-rack dishwasher-safe
What we liked: If you’re after a model that can accommodate a whole potato in its hopper, this is a good option. It has comfortable handles and perforations on all sides of the hopper, allowing potatoes to move through easily.
What we didn’t like: It’s quite large, heavy, and messy to use (thanks to the aforementioned perforations). Because of its size, it’s tougher to store, too.
Key Specs
- Materials: Cast aluminum and rubber handle, stainless steel
- Number of perforations: 1,260
- Distance between perforations: 1/16-inch
- Weight: 2 pounds
- Handle length: 6 3/4 inches
- Opening size: 4 inches
- Care instructions: Dishwasher-safe; hand-washing is recommended
The Competition
- OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Potato Ricer: The short handles on this model were uncomfortable to use and the narrow opening on the hopper basket made it difficult to load.
- Williams Sonoma Potato Ricer: This ricer is made by Chef’n and is almost identical to our winner. The only difference is the sides of the hopper basket are perforated as well as the bottom. I found that extra holes offer little more than another surface to scrape potato from, but if you’d like more holes this model is slightly cheaper than the Chef’n.
- RSVP International Spud Potato Ricer: This is a solid ricer, though it did feel a tad flimsier than other models. It’s easy enough to clean, however, you have to make sure each piece is fully dry before reassembling. Otherwise, the pieces tend to get stuck together.
- MyLifeUNIT Heavy Duty Commercial Potato Ricer: The handles of this stainless steel ricer were uncomfortable to use and the construction was chock-a-block with nooks and crannies for mashed potatoes to make their way into.
- Bellemain Potato Ricer: This model felt unstable during use in addition to having uncomfortable handles and a hopper basket that slipped away from the body when opening the ricer.
- Priority Chef Large Potato Ricer: This ricer’s construction was flimsy. The plunger is held loosely to the body, allowing it to wiggle from left to right as you’re using it. I didn’t like the scraping of metal on metal when opening and closing the ricer, and the handles were uncomfortable.
FAQs
How do you use a potato ricer?
Most (but not all) potato ricers are designed like large garlic presses. You place cooked potatoes (or other vegetables) into a perforated hopper, then apply pressure with a lever that pushes the food through small holes.
What is a potato ricer for?
Well, mainly potatoes. Though you can press other soft food items through it, like avocados to make simple purées, most other vegetables need something a little more forceful to break down their tough fibers and cell walls.
What’s the point of ricing potatoes?
Ricing is a great way to mash potatoes while ensuring that they do not become gummy. The ricer breaks down the potato while only rupturing the cells once as they pass through the hopper. It’s an especially useful tool if you’re making something like gnocchi that requires a particularly fluffy mash, or if you just want to guarantee you won’t overwork your potatoes.
How do you clean a potato ricer?
Every model I tested was dishwasher-safe, though we do recommend putting it on the top rack where it’s furthest from the heating element. Check the manufacturer’s instructions for their recommendations. If you don’t have a dishwasher or prefer to wash by hand, a bottle brush did a great job of getting potato out of the ricer’s many small holes.
Why We’re the Experts
- Andrea Rivera Wawrzyn is a freelance food writer and recipe developer and was formerly an associate editor at America’s Test Kitchen.
- She has developed recipes for multiple New York Times bestselling cookbooks, including an IACP award winner.
- For this review, Andrea tested nine potato ricers by using them to rice potatoes. She also examined how easy they were to operate and clean.