It’s funny to think that merely 2 years ago, I didn’t even know what cheesecloth was, let alone have a need for it.
However, now that my kitchen has been transformed into a real food workshop, I find myself needing all sorts of “weird” items.
Cheesecloth has many uses. Most commonly it’s used in various forms of cheesemaking (duh), but it also works great as a strainer for broth, jellies, or soft cheeses like yogurt or kefir cheese.
If you walk into your run-of-the-mill store asking for cheesecloth, the clerk will scratch his head and then most likely send you to the hardware department where they will point you to a poor, gauze-like, excuse for the stuff. Don’t be tempted, it doesn’t work! The “fabric” is flimsy and the holes are too big. It’s not really designed for kitchen use.
The other option is to find a high-end kitchen supply store, as they sometimes carry it. (But not Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Been there, done that…)
OR, my solution to this problem?
Go grab a package of diapers.
Wait a second. Crinkly, disposable diapers are probably the first thing that came to your mind, right?
Nope, not those ones. I’m talking the old-fashioned, cloth kind.
You know, the cheapie ones that create a big, leaky mess if you use them on your baby? Well, they make horrible diapers, but perfect cheesecloth!
Really, all they are is a big ol’ linen-style napkin. They aren’t fuzzy, so you don’t have to worry about fabric bits ending up in your cheese.
But, if you do decide to go this route, make sure you buy a package specifically for kitchen use and mark them with a Sharpie.
Lemme say that one more time: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT use these interchangeably on your baby and cheese.
That.would.be.gross.
Thankfully, I use the high-tech version of cloth dipes on Prairie Baby (look for a future post on that, by the way!), so I don’t have to worry about any confusion.
I’ve used this technique for all sorts of cheese projects, and it’s worked great. Maybe someday I’ll get around to ordering some real, official cheesecloth from Cultures for Health, but for now, I’m happy with my diapers!
Do you ever use cheesecloth in your kitchen? Do you use the ‘real’ stuff, or a creative alternative?
I shared this post at Kitchen Tip Tuesday , Works for Me Wednesday, and Traditional Tuesday
What a great idea!!!I have been using the DIY store version of cheesecloth for sometime, and while it works for my yogurt straining, it’s less than ideal – and a waste since I can’t rinse and reuse it.
I’ve been using flour sack towels. I scored a bunch some time ago, something like 4 for $5. They are huge.
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I love flour sack towels, but seem to have a hard time finding them!
I just saw them at Target. 4 pack for $3.99!
Really? Will have to look next time I go to town! Thanks for the heads up!
I bought a cheap white top sheet ($3 @ stuffmart) cut it into squares and ran it thru my washer on hot water a few times, then boiled them once or twice, and washed them –yeah, I am a bit anal about the possible chemicals on the cloth lol– dried them and voila! An awesome thin alternative to cheesecloth. It works fabulously, cleans easily, and was inexpensive. The sheet cost less than a pack if the loose woven poorly made cheesecloth.
This is a great idea too!! And good idea about the repeated washings, I totally agree about the icky chemicals.
Never thought of those. Going to buy me a pack!
dr momi recently posted..Getting All My Ducks In A Row
What a great idea, it is such a pain to find real cheese cloth thanks for the great tip.
Erin recently posted..Salvaged Pallets
I use tea towels (I think its the same as the flour sack towels mentioned above) You might find them in a hardware store. I got mine at Menards for under three dollars for ten or so. Its been a while so I don’t quite remember how many came to a pack. they work perfectly.
I will have to check our Home Depot or Lowes next time I’m there. I would really like to grab some of these. Can think of many, many uses for them!
Hi…I found some “bar mops” at Sams and have them for my kitchen, bees, and cheese needs. They work great, last a long time, launder well, and are CHEAP!
This is a great idea too! Hooray for cheap “cheesecloth”!
What a great idea! I can find decent cheesecloth at my grocery store, but it’s anything but frugal. Are you sure you mean prefold diapers though? That’s the kind with additional layers in the middle. Would flat diapers be more like cheesecloth?
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Whoops! Thanks for catching that Danielle! I got my diapers confused- I meant the single layer, flat diapers. Not the pre-folds! Fixing it right now.
Large Cotton Diapers – these work the best!
Light weight kitchen towels.
Extra large handkerchiefs – as good as cotton diapers: MPO.
Old pillowcases … in a pinch
~Val
You cracked me up. I use cheesecloth a lot. I buy it at our dollar store a lot of times, but I like the diaper idea a lot, too. I’m going to see if I can find them.
Thanks for the tip!
Jocelyn recently posted..Adventures of Ginger the Layer
Great idea! I’ve used cloth diapers for other purposes, but I never thought of using one this way. We’ve used flour sack towels for straining our milk, but now we use one of those inexpensive white sheer curtains for our milk, butter, cheese, and also for straining sorghum syrup when we make it. We cut it into the sizes we want, and it doesn’t tear up the way cheesecloth sometimes does. We first saw one hanging on a line at a friends house in an Amish community. They had been using it for straining their sorghum.
Blessings,
Sherry
Awesome tip once I realized your weren’t talking about prefolds…lol.
I LOVE this! Thanks for sharing at Traditional Tuesdays! I haven’t made cheese yet since our oldest is allergic to cow’s milk, but I do have some frozen goat’s milk that I hope to try my hand at in making cheese soon. I had bought some cheesecloth this past year on sale, but now I have another great option!
Thanks again!
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I’m with Adrienne, can’t do cow’s milk cheese right now, but I’m seriously interested in the benefits of making my own coconut milk from fresh coconuts and it seems like cheesecloth is needed for that too. Definitely going to give this tip a try!
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I’ve never tried making my own coconut milk, but it sounds intriguing!
I use cloth diapers for many things around the house. (Have a bundle of cheesecloth in my kitchen, but can never find it when I want to use it.) The best other use I’ve ever found for the diapers is as dust cloths! Personally, I HATE dusting the furniture, but this does do an EXCELLENT job. Even better that all the “new” stuff out there.
Don’t think I’ve used them as dust clothes yet. Will have to give it a try!
Great idea! I use sheer curtains too but I think the diapers might work even better. I need the sheers for bagging seed heads in the garden anyway.
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In my local grocery, they sell a 2-pack of large (24×36 in.) linen squares, which they call flour sack (it isn’t), for $1. It’s great as a standing for cheesecloth. I leave some whole. Others I cut in 1/2 and hem, so I get 4 cloths for $1 that way. I use it to cover rising bread, straining anything and everything, and, in a pinch, I use it as a dish towel. There is definitely more than one way to strain a cat.
Hehe, “strain a cat” *smile*
stand-in …duh!
my favorite is the butter muslin from Hoegges goat supply and they ave a great cheese press liner I live that is synthetic…I use it against the cheese w/ the mudlin underneath as it does not collect hair in the washer like the cloth does!
I use old, clean white t-shirts (the undershirts that men where) for straining juice for jelly, broth, butter…anything that needs to be strained. I haven’t made cheese before so not sure if it would for that but it works great for all other liquids. Great way to repurpose t-shirts.
the t-shirts that men *wear*
Great idea Brenda! I think those would definitely work for most cheeses, too!
Love everyone’s ideas! I’ve been using some old cloth hankerchiefs that were handed down to me, but they are starting to get a big ragged. I’ll have to look for some flour sacks or cheap diaper at Target next time I am there! (I also love the idea of using curtain sheers to bag seedheads in the garden: brilliant!!!
I haven’t made much cheese yet, although I’ve done a lot of yogurt. For smaller straining needs, unbleached coffee filters have worked (the organic ones were a clearance item at our store), but the best reusable cloth is my stash of “off limits for anything else” collection of simple cotton dish towels from Ikea. They sell them for $0.79, and they’re large enough to cut into several smaller bits for more projects. And they survive laundry exceptionally well. The red stripe on these is a good “hands off!” colour code for my husband, too, so he leaves them be.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10100909/
I also thought of sewing some hanging loops into the corners of the towel bits. That way, I could hang ricotta-style cheeses to dry from those loops, without having to hope and pray for my lame knots to hold. I’ll have to give those diapers a look, though. I remember my mom used to have those in the kitchen when I was a kid, and was surprised, when the cheesecloth at grocery stores wasn’t like it.
Those tea towels sound wonderful! And what a great idea of sewing some loops into them as wel… I’ve had issues with my lame knot tying skills as well. Such as mess when they don’t hold!
We use raw cow’s milk and cream to make butter, yogurt and have tried cream cheese and we have started using sheer curtains instead of cheesecloth. Never really thought of using cloth diapers. Will have to try that! Thanks!
Curtains- what a good idea! I’m thinking there are lots of ways to get around buying the expensive cheese cloth.
We use Daddy’s old t-shirts, cut into large squares.
Love the old TShirt idea! We have such a surplus of those and they aren’t as great for cleaning up spills as old towels are, so they usually get shifted to the back of the rag box.
I’ve been using a jelly bag to strain my yogurt and cheeses. The bag and stand keeps things neat and compact, which is important in my small, apartment kitchen, and very easy to load/unload the goods.
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I think the jelly bag idea is a good one!
my grandmother used old sheets that were worn thin for stuff like this, make sure they’re 100% cotton, not wrinkle-free. Some stores still carry flour in cloth sacks, you can get a look at the texture that way, for free haha. I made a dress in high school, in the 60′s from flour sacks with little pink flowers. Cheese cloth needs to me doubled, folded in half, when the holes are too large. Our grandmothers and great grandmothers used whatever they had, recycling at its best
They used to steam plum ‘pudding’ with bags they sewed out of old sheets, too.
I have purchased the large 24″ by 24″ flour sack towels at Walmart until recently. I was at a fabric store and was amazed to find they sold cheesecloth (the good sturdy kind) by the bolt! I bought the whole bolt
Yogurt cheese here I come.
Heather H. recently posted..Rice Pilaf
Ha, I would have bought the whole bolt, too! Lucky you.
Great ideas you guys! I will offer one caveat – try to make sure the cloth you are using has no fire retardant chemicals…it can’t be washed out, from what I understand
we use organic unbleached butter muslin in our kits and for our classes.
I use muslin. I get a pack of 4 I think it is, at Ikea for less than €5. I cut them according to which ferment I need them for (jar sizes) and wala! Works amazingly well, is affordable, re-useable. and fun as you can get different designs if you want. I usually use plain white, but I do have some pink. lol
I use muslin. I get a pack of 4 I think it is, at Ikea for less than €5. I cut them according to which ferment I need them for (jar sizes) and wala! Works amazingly well, is affordable, re-useable and fun as you can get different designs if you want.
Great ideas. Will be using them. I was getting my cheesecloth through the buying club. I just have one tip. I tie the top of my cheesecloth with a rubber band, tight. Then I put one of the rubber band loops over a plastic hanger, and hang the hanger from my cupboard. Never had any problems.
I make soft goat cheese (a kind of Chevre) and use whatever I can to strain, including many layers of regular cheesecloth, and/or a bandana (white, sterilized and dedicated to cheesemaking, of course).
I can’t remember what I was looking for that I wound up here. But after reading the comments, I thought I should add what I use for straining juices, 1-Gallon Paint Strainers, found at Lowes or Home Depot, or any hardware or paint store, a package of 2 for $2.00. They have an elastic top, appear to be made of nylon, and are lint free and transluscent (you can see through it).
Good idea Joseph! Thanks for sharing!