When it goes wrong · TO STRAIN
The sieve clogs and the liquid stops moving.
Can you save it?
Reviewed for this symptom
Lift the sieve and swirl it, tap the rim, and scrape the caked solids off the underside; empty it part way and continue. Do not push — pressure forces fine debris through and clouds the liquid.
How to confirm the diagnosis
Observable cues, not inferred user state
- The stream has slowed to a stop while liquid still sits above the solids
- A layer of fine debris is caked across the mesh
- The sieve is small for the volume
Is this what you're seeing?
Near neighbours, different causes
- The stock is cloudy even though it was strained.
- Lemon curd or custard has firm little flecks in it.
- Half the liquid is gone with the solids.
What actually happened
Only this symptom
Too much fine solid for the mesh area. Tap the rim, lift and swirl rather than push, and empty the sieve part way through instead of waiting for it all to go.
The full mechanism
Shared by every strain failure
A strainer is a hole-size decision. A colander's holes are millimetres wide and hold back pasta and vegetables; a fine sieve's mesh is a fraction of a millimetre and holds back cooked egg strands, seeds, tea leaves and the fine debris that makes a stock cloudy; a cloth goes finer still. Hot liquid flows faster than cold because its viscosity is lower, which is why a stock is strained straight from the heat and a curd is pushed through while it is still warm and loose. The instinct to press the solids through with a spoon is the thing to unlearn: pressure forces fine particles through the mesh along with the liquid, and that is exactly what turns a clear broth cloudy and a smooth sauce grainy. Let it drip, tap the rim to keep it moving, and accept that the last spoonful stays behind.
The full TO STRAIN lesson — how to tell, where to practise it, what it carries to.
Next time
Prevent this specific failure
Use a larger sieve for fine solids, strain in batches, and empty the mesh partway rather than waiting for all of it to pass.
What right looks like
Shared by every strain failure
- The stream through the sieve slows to steady drips — the liquid has gone, and what is left is solids, not more liquid.
- Held up to the light, a strained stock or syrup is clear enough to see through; cloudiness means something got pushed through.
- The back of a spoon drawn across a strained sauce or curd leaves a smooth track with no specks.
- The solids left in the mesh are wet but no longer sitting in liquid.