Prep Tools

Chinois (Fine-Mesh Conical Strainer)

Cone-shaped fine-mesh strainer for ultra-smooth sauces, stocks, and purees.

A chinois is a deep, cone-shaped strainer with an extremely fine metal mesh, used to produce silky-smooth sauces, stocks, custards, and purees. Its conical shape funnels liquid to a single point and lets you press solids through with a ladle or pestle to extract maximum flavor. The coarser, perforated-metal version is called a China cap and is used for less delicate straining.

The chinois is the conical fine-mesh strainer that classical French kitchens reach for when a sauce has to be silky, a stock has to gleam, or a purée has to read as velvet rather than pulp. Its steep, narrow cone channels liquid toward a single point at the bottom, while a hooked rim lets it perch over a pot while you work. The mesh is significantly finer than a standard wire strainer — closer to a window-screen than to a colander — which is why a single pass can remove fibers, raft, seeds, and skins that would otherwise muddy the texture.

What sets the chinois apart from a flat tamis or a hemispherical fine-mesh sieve is geometry. The sloping walls let a wooden pestle press food against the mesh without tearing it, and they let the strained liquid flow away by gravity in a thin, controlled stream. In a professional brigade, the chinois is the difference between a sauce and a 'polished' sauce — the same reduction, refined one last time through a tool that catches what a whisk and spatula could not.

In American kitchens it is often called a china cap, but the tool and its purpose are unchanged. The 8-inch model with a medium-fine mesh is the workhorse of most restaurant saucier and stock stations; the 6-inch version handles smaller garnish work, and the 10- or 12-inch versions are reserved for large-batch stock clarification.

Alternatives

Fine Mesh Sieve Lined With CheeseclothNut Milk Bag

Types & varieties

Standard chinois (china cap)

Medium-fine wire mesh in a deep cone; the everyday model for straining stocks, consommés, and tomato coulis.

Extra-fine chinois

Tighter weave or finer-perforated plate; used when the result must read glassy — clear consommé, refined demi-glace, translucent fruit coulis.

Perforated-plate chinois

Replaces woven wire with a sheet of stainless steel pierced with very small round holes; tougher than wire mesh and favored for vegetable purées where fibrous matter is the enemy.

Tinned-steel chinois (vintage)

Older French models with a tin coating; prized by collectors and some traditional kitchens, but the coating wears and the mesh is more fragile.

Chinois vs. Tamis vs. Fine-Mesh Sieve

The three tools get conflated, and they are not interchangeable. A chinois is a deep cone, designed so the pestle can scrape its sloping walls clean and the apex can channel liquid to a single point. A tamis is a flat drum sieve stretched over a hoop; you press or rub food across the mesh with a scraper, which is gentler on soft berries and gives an even more refined result, but it does not sit over a pot on its own. A 'fine-mesh sieve' in most cookbooks refers to a hemispherical kitchen strainer — useful for catching bones or skimming, but with a coarser weave and no conical geometry to work with a pestle. Think of a chinois as the step up from a regular fine-mesh sieve in the same way a Microplane is a step up from a box grater: same family, different league.

Working the Chinois: Technique Notes

The right motion matters as much as the right tool. A short list of habits that separate a clean pass from a clogged, torn mess:

Rest the chinois on its hooked prongs over the receiving pot so your hands stay free for the pestle and a ladle.
Add food in small batches — a heaping ladleful, not a cup at a time — so solids do not pile up against the mesh.
Rotate the wooden pestle in small circles, pressing outward against the cone's walls; never bear straight down, which buries the work into the apex and stalls flow.
Reserve the back of a ladle for moving liquid through when no pressure is needed; reserve the pestle for pushing solids.
Rinse the mesh with hot water the moment you finish. Dried-on residue is the single most common reason a chinois gets retired early.

Common uses

Straining clarified stocks, fonds, and consommés to remove every trace of impurity or raft.Polishing sauces — finishing a demi-glace, velouté, or jus by passing them through to erase graininess.Making silky vegetable purées (carrot, squash, pea, celeriac) by pushing cooked vegetables through the mesh to discard fibers and skins.Producing clear fruit coulis and fruit or vegetable consommés.Sifting dry ingredients such as confectioners' sugar, cocoa, or finely ground spices.Straining egg-yolk and cream mixtures for custards and sabayon to guarantee a lump-free base.Catching bones and aromatics when pouring a finished court-bouillon.

Tips & pitfalls

Work in small batches — overloading the cone lets solids pile up against the mesh and slows the pass to a crawl.
Use a wooden pestle or the back of a ladle; never metal, which can tear the wire or shave off the tin coating on older models.
Twist, don't grind: rotate the pestle in small circles to force product through while scraping the inside walls.
For an even more refined result, line the mesh with a single layer of cheesecloth (étamine) — useful for clear consommés or fruit sauces meant to gleam.
Clean the mesh the instant you finish, before residue dries and hardens. Rinse under hot water, then soak; a soft brush is safer than a scrubber.
Do not press raw onion, leek, or other strongly aromatic waste through a chinois you also use for delicate fruit work — flavors cling to the wire.
Hang or store the chinois rim-down so water drains from the cone and the mesh dries without trapping moisture against the metal.
If the mesh snags, do not try to straighten bent wires with a knife — the deformation will only worsen. Retire or re-mesh the tool.

Good to know

Pronunciation: shan-WAH (French)
Also called: China cap in American kitchens; also 'chinois sieve' or 'conical strainer'
Origin of name: French for 'Chinese,' traditionally said to refer to the cone's resemblance to an East Asian coolie hat
Cuisine of origin: Classical French cuisine; a foundational tool of the Escoffier-era kitchen brigade
Typical material: Tinned or stainless steel wire mesh with a sturdy metal rim; vintage models were sometimes copper
Common diameters: 6 in, 8 in, 10 in, and 12 in; 8 in is the workhorse in most professional kitchens
Mesh fineness: Substantially finer than a standard wire strainer — closer to a window-screen than to a colander; some versions use a perforated metal plate instead of woven wire
Stand: Three hooked prongs (or a ring base) on the rim let it perch over a pot or rondeau while you work
Pestle: Paired with a wooden paddle — sometimes called a 'chinois stick,' 'wooden pestle,' or 'sabre' — used to push food through the mesh
Key output: Silky, fiber-free sauces and purées in a single pass; the step that turns a finished reduction into a polished one