I bought the RSVP Endurance 5-quart Precision Pierced Colander after using my old colander until well after it fell apart. I hated my old colander, and only stubborn frugality made me use it for such a long time. It wasn't stainless steel and it had too few holes to drain properly. I wanted my new colander to drain better and not discolor. The Endurance has met those expectations exceedingly well, and in almost every way, the colander is ideal.

I decided to buy this Endurance colander based on the recommendation of the test cooks at America's Test Kitchen. They regularly test all manner of kitchen gadgets and deliver compressed Consumer Reports-like reviews via their magazines and cookbooks. This colander had been their anointed favorite for years. By the time I read about it though, they were updating their review with a caveat: after years of running the Endurance through the thermal stresses of an automatic dishwasher, they found that the soldering on the handles was loosening up. This didn't concern me as I was used to washing my colander by hand, which is what they ended up recommending.

The bowl of the Endurance is made out of one piece of metal which is absolutely riddled with holes. As the name would indicate, the oval drainage holes are spaced very regularly over the surface, despite its curving shape. The metal ring stand gets the bottom of the colander a good distance off the surface of the sink. And the metal handles are slightly rounded, making them comfortable on the hands. Because there are so very many holes in this colander, it drains incredibly quickly and thoroughly. With a 5-quart capacity, this colander can easily hold two pounds of cooked pasta.

My old colander annoyed me in another way. A small amount of liquid would pool in the flattened bottom of the bowl and drain very, very slowly. That doesn't happen with the Endurance Precision Pierced Colander, though the bottom is slightly flattened. I suppose the flattened shape is less of an issue than the number and spacing of the drainage holes. The Endurance drains remarkably well, without the need to tilt the bowl and coax water out. It just does its job the way it's meant to.

I haven't owned the colander long enough for the soldering to fail if I were sending it through the dishwasher, as reported by the America's Test Kitchen. And as I said, I hand-wash mine. Nonetheless, I do have one minor complaint about it. Whenever I clean the colander, I have a hard time rinsing out any little solids left in the bowl. Things like a tiny fragment of broccoli floret, or a smidgen of cooked spinach are hard to get out. It's not that they get jammed in a drain hole. Rather, the surface of the bowl is so pock-marked with indentations that stuff just won't slide smoothly over it and out. So I practically have to scoop each little bit out by hand. If I just try to rinse it out with water, it moves a bit and then stops. And of course if I turn the colander upside down, it's hard to spray the water over the inner surface.

I've more or less gotten used to this. I scoop out anything left in the colander as well as I can, scrub it down, and then spend more time than usual rinsing it out with water. I guess it's a small price to pay for a colander that drains so well. And I never have trouble emptying pasta or large pieces of vegetable out of the colander. It's only small bits that get stuck.

The Endurance Precision Pierced Colander is a rather handsome kitchen item, as these things go. I've seen them displayed as fruit bowls and while that may be a stretch, it's not a very big one. If I needed to use it as a fruit bowl, I wouldn't be the least embarrassed about displaying it. The stainless steel has held up beautifully for the ten months I've owned it. I hope it will hold up at least as long as my old, unmourned colander.

I can highly recommend the RSVP Endurance Precision Pierced Colander as a great drainer. Though not based on my own experience, I have passed along the caveat about hand-washing the colander to spare the soldering on the handles. My own experience leads me to warn about a little extra clean-up effort. If frugality is not an issue for you, I suppose that you could save the extra effort by running this colander through the dishwasher, and just replace it if and when the handles come loose.

I'd give it four and a half stars if I could.

Some of my other favorite kitchen tools:

• Swing Away Can Opener - the one I kept after trying all the others
• Taylor Instant Read Pocket Thermometer - the most necessary tool for cooking roasts of any kind
• KitchenAid Professional Standing Mixer - versatile, high-performing, & durable kitchen cornerstone
• KitchenAid Santoku knife - a nice intersection of a chef's knife and a utility knife
• Cuisinart Mini-Mate Food Processor - grind those spices or make pesto in a trice
• Oxo Good Grips Kitchen Tongs - sturdy and safe to use with non-stick pans
• Oxo Good Grips Offset Bread Knife - does its job well and safely
• Black & Decker Rice & Vegetable Steamer - takes a licking, keeps on ticking
• Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven - ideal for stews, and no knead bread
• Bron Mandoline Slicer - the Cadillac of the kitchen
• Magnabar Knife Holder - extra storage space for my best kitchen tools




Recommended: Yes