One strainer does most jobs badly. A big one is clumsy for dusting icing sugar over a single cake, and a tiny one is hopeless for rinsing a pan’s worth of rice. That’s the honest case for owning a nested set instead of a lone sieve.
The Cuisinart Mesh Strainers 3-Count comes as three stainless steel strainers at 3⅛″, 5½″ and 7⅞″. Each has a long looped handle and a hook on the rim so it rests across a bowl or pan without you holding it.
What each size ends up doing
The smallest will probably get the most use. It’s right for tea leaves, a spoonful of cocoa over a coffee, lemon pips, or skimming scum off stock without scooping half the stock with it. The middle one handles sauces and custards that need a final push through to catch lumps. The large one is your rinse-and-drain size for rice, quinoa and a bag of berries.
What’s good and what isn’t
Fine mesh is what makes these worth having over a perforated colander, because small grains like rice and quinoa don’t slip through. Stainless steel means no staining from turmeric or beetroot, and they’re dishwasher safe, which matters because dried-on batter or flour paste turns to cement in fine mesh. Rinse straight away, then stick them in the dishwasher.
The catch is that thin wire handles aren’t padded. Held over a pan of simmering stock the metal gets warm, so use the rim hook rather than your hand. They’re also light, so don’t expect to press a heavy stew through the mesh with the back of a ladle and not bend something.
Who should skip it
If you only ever drain pasta, you don’t need these. If you bake, make sauces from scratch, or rinse grains, three sizes in one drawer will be used more than you’d think.
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