Puree 3 gallons per week of food?
January 4, 2016 7:42 AM   Subscribe

I need to puree and strain 3 gallons a week of food for family members with various medical conditions. This takes a lot of time with my standard 6-cup blender and hand strainer. Are there wonderful machines that will make my life easier? Anything that will lead to less batches? Quicker blending? Mechanized straining?

I'm willing to spend a fair amount of money. $1000 doesn't seem unreasonable right now. The canned food is free, but unfortunately it causes diarrhea for one of the people who needs it.
posted by clawsoon to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)
 
A vitamix MIGHT eliminate the straining- it will process strawberry seeds completely smooth. Could you find one to borrow and see if it gets foods to the correct consistency?
posted by PorcineWithMe at 7:59 AM on January 4, 2016 [3 favorites]


We have a professional Cuisinart food processor that will bring any food down to as much of a slurry as you'd like, and you cannot break that thing.
posted by xingcat at 8:04 AM on January 4, 2016 [2 favorites]


20-cup Cuisinart. $801.
posted by beagle at 8:12 AM on January 4, 2016


Victorio food strainer with motor
posted by beagle at 8:15 AM on January 4, 2016


Best answer: If this is for people with feeding tubes, both Blendtec and Vitamix have offered medical discounts on their blenders. You have to call their customer service department and provide a letter from a doctor. I'm not sure if either one of them are still offering it but I can tell you that our medically discounted Vitamix got things so smooth that I never had to strain and I put food through a feeding tube for two years.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 8:16 AM on January 4, 2016 [16 favorites]


A hand blender may eliminate batching depending on what you are trying to blend. You would definitely need to strain. But it would be an inexpensive thing to try out while you are looking for a permanent solution.
posted by rocketpup at 8:26 AM on January 4, 2016


A food mill or mouli mill might be easier than just a strainer, if you still end up needing to do that portion. They have a handle to push things through the strainer portion and you could find one that's on the larger side (and with fine enough holes for your needs, obviously--there are a bunch of brands and styles.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:06 AM on January 4, 2016


Best answer: Friends of mine who have a tube fed child SWEAR by their Blendtec blender for making 'real food' feeding formula.
posted by Northbysomewhatcrazy at 9:07 AM on January 4, 2016


Response by poster: Thanks for the great answers. Best answers for confirmation that I only need an awesome blender for the feeding tube. :-)
posted by clawsoon at 9:21 AM on January 4, 2016


I use a Vitamix every day at work. It's what you want. They're virtually unkillable (unless you strip the connecting...socket? dealie thing), and while you'll still have to work in batches, it blends so hard and so fast that you can motor through 30L very, very quickly.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 9:57 AM on January 4, 2016


My Blendtec came with two carafes, not sure if you can get extras for the Vitamix but I can tell you it makes it really darn easy to blend huge batches of things if you can have one being washed out while another is blending.
posted by padraigin at 10:59 AM on January 4, 2016


Does the doctor know Jevity is causing diarrhea? There are other tube-feed brands out there to try.
posted by Coffeemate at 11:53 AM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


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