Spider Strainer Alternative: What to Use to Lift Food From Hot Oil

A spider strainer is the tool most cooks reach for when a batch of taquitos, churros or tortilla strips is ready to come out of the oil. But plenty of kitchens don’t have one, and the one you own may be too small for a pot of ravioli or too coarse for the crumbs left after frying. The good news is that several ordinary tools can do the job, some of them better for a particular food.

This guide covers what to use instead of a spider, how well each option works and where it falls short. In a restaurant kitchen we judge a lifting tool on three things: how many pieces it brings up at once, how quickly the oil or water runs off, and how far it keeps your hand from the heat. Six tools pass that test, and each one does the job in a different way.

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What a spider does, and why the stand-ins differ

The Wikipedia entry on the spider describes it as “a wide shallow wire-mesh basket with a long handle”, named for its web-like wire pattern. It is “good for lifting and draining foods from hot oil, soups, stocks and boiling water.” The same entry says Western cooks “favour the open mesh over slotted spoons for faster and safer drainage”, and that, unlike a fine sieve, a spider is a strainer for larger pieces of food.

That gives you the three jobs any alternative has to cover:

• Lifting. Getting food up and out of the pot. A wide tool lifts more per trip; a narrow one means more trips over hot oil.
• Draining. Letting the oil or water fall back into the pot. Open wire drains fastest; small holes drain more slowly.
• Reach. Keeping your hand and wrist out of the steam and spatter. Handle length matters here.

No single stand-in matches a spider on all three. A perforated skimmer comes closest in shape. A fry basket lifts the most. A slotted spoon and tongs are the tools most kitchens already own. A pasta insert handles boiling water better than any spider, and a fine-mesh strainer catches what a spider lets through. If you would rather just buy a spider, our guide to the best spider strainer compares seven of them.

Quick verdict: the best spider strainer alternative

Five ways to replace a spider, side by side

Five standout options, one for each kind of cook, with what the maker or listing states. All six tools are reviewed in full below.

Six picks for a spider strainer alternative

The six tools below run from the closest match to the most specialized. Each one covers part of a spider’s job well and part of it poorly, so read the “skip it if” line before you buy.

No-buy options from your drawer

You may not need to buy anything for an occasional batch. These are not picks, just ways cooks get by:

• A ladle with a lid. For boiled food, scoop with a ladle and tip the water back by holding a pot lid or plate against the rim. It is slow and only practical in water, never in oil.
• Pouring into a colander. For a whole pot of pasta or potatoes, draining into a colander in the sink still works. Our colander alternative guide covers the other direction, using a spider or tongs instead of a colander.
• A small metal sieve. A tea-size mesh strainer can pick crumbs out of the oil between batches, if its handle is metal and long enough to keep your hand back.

How to choose a spider alternative

Start with what you lift most often

If it is fried food in batches, a fry basket or a skimmer is the real answer. If it is pasta and dumplings in water, a pasta insert or a skimmer. If it is a few large pieces, tongs. A slotted spoon covers small amounts of everything, slowly.

Check the fit with your pot

A fry basket needs a rim its hooks can sit on and room inside the pot, and a pasta insert needs a stockpot it actually fits. A skimmer, spoon, tongs or strainer works in any pot.

Look at the handle

For frying, reach is safety. The Winco tongs give 16 inches, the HIC basket has a 12.5-inch handle, and the Winco strainer’s grip sits at the end of a long wire handle. Plastic or nylon parts near the heat are worth a second look: check what temperature the maker gives before you hold them over hot oil.

Think about drainage

As a rule of thumb, open wire drains fastest, perforated metal is slower, a slotted spoon holds a little oil, and fine mesh is slowest of all. Whatever you use, hold the food over the pot for a few seconds before moving it to a rack or paper towels.

Frying safely without a spider

Changing the lifting tool doesn’t change the rules for hot oil. The U.S. Fire Administration’s cooking safety page puts it simply: “Stand by your pan. If you leave the kitchen, turn the burner off.” It warns that “fires start when the heat is too high,” that if you “see any smoke or the grease starts to boil, turn the burner off,” and that you should keep a pan lid or baking sheet nearby to cover the pan if it catches fire.

Wikipedia’s deep frying entry adds that food is usually fried between 350°F and 375°F, and warns that trying to put out an oil fire with water “can cause an extremely dangerous condition,” because the water turns to steam and spreads the burning oil. Cover the pot instead. For pots, thermometers and other ways to fry without a dedicated fryer, see our deep fryer alternative guide, or our best deep fryer guide if you would rather have a machine with its own basket.

How we chose these six tools

We started from the three things a spider does, lifting, draining and reach, and looked for tools that do some of that job in a genuinely different way. We kept one tool of each kind rather than several versions of the same idea, and we left out wok skimmers and wire skimmers because they are spiders under another name. We also left out fish spatulas, which suit shallow frying more than lifting food from a pot. Every pick comes from an identifiable maker, was in stock with a new offer when we checked, and does not appear on our spider strainer guide. Specifications come from the Amazon listings. How each tool works comes from the Wikipedia entries on the spider, skimmer, slotted spoon, tongs and deep frying, and the safety advice from the U.S. Fire Administration. We have not used these products ourselves, and nothing here says Julia’s uses them.

Spider strainer alternative questions, answered

What can I use instead of a spider strainer?

A perforated skimmer is the closest match. A fry basket is better for batches of fried food, a slotted spoon works for a few pieces, tongs handle long or large pieces, a pasta insert is better for a pot of pasta, and a fine-mesh strainer catches small bits a spider lets through.

Is a slotted spoon as good as a spider?

Not for frying in quantity. Wikipedia’s spider entry says cooks favour the open mesh over slotted spoons for faster and safer drainage. A slotted spoon still works well for a few pieces at a time.

What is the difference between a skimmer and a spider?

Wikipedia describes a skimmer as a flat, sieve-like scoop or spoon for skimming cooking liquids, and a spider as a type of skimmer with a wide, shallow basket of wire mesh. The Cuisinart skimmer here is a perforated metal bowl. In general kitchen terms, open wire drains a little faster, while a perforated bowl is handier for skimming foam from stock.

Can I use a colander or mesh strainer in hot oil?

A stainless steel mesh strainer with a metal handle can lift crumbs and small pieces out of oil; Wikipedia’s deep frying entry lists sieves among the tools used for it. Don’t hold any tool with a plastic part over hot oil unless the maker gives a heat rating that covers it.

How do I get pasta out of the pot without a spider?

Use a pasta insert and lift the whole batch, use tongs for long pasta, or drain the pot into a colander. A skimmer or slotted spoon works for ravioli and short shapes.

Our last word on life without a spider

For most kitchens, the Cuisinart skimmer is the easiest replacement: the same flat, wide bowl on a long handle, for oil and water alike. If you fry in batches, the HIC fry basket saves the most work, and a pair of long tongs covers whatever a basket or skimmer can’t. If you fry or blanch most days, though, a real spider is still the best tool, and our best spider strainer guide will help you choose one. When you would rather someone else did the frying, see the menu or call to order.