I have another doozie to share with you this week…
Here’s my Friday Food Flop for today:
This one isn’t actually a food flop, but more just a kitchen flop. Years ago when I started hanging my homemade yogurt to drain out the whey and use the cheese in recipes, I went to the store for cheesecloth. The gal showed me where to go and I quickly found what I wanted and was on my way. These worked fine for years.
Then one day a couple weeks ago we had extra raw milk, so I added some yogurt from a previous batch and gave it to Sonia so she could make some cheese, too. She couldn’t find her cheesecloth so I brought her one of mine. She looked at it and asked, “Is that cheesecloth?” I said, “Yeah, why?” A couple days later she found hers and showed me. So I found out that apparently I’ve been straining my cheese for years with a dishcloth.
Here’s how they look…
Straining yogurt with a dish cloth:
Straining yogurt with a cheesecloth, it’s got bigger holes so more whey will drain out:
This just shows how far some of us are from the traditional food lifestyle (myself included), since we didn’t grow up knowing any of this stuff!
I wrote all of the above before my cheese finished draining, and now that it’s done, I might just like the dishcloth better. The whey is more clear with a
dishcloth (not that it really matters), and it’s much less messy to deal with because it’s thicker and not so flippy floppy all over the place when I’m pouring the yogurt in or taking the cheese out. The cheesecloth is just so much like a thin gauze that it almost feels like it’s a one-time-use disposable cloth. I’ll see how it washes.
I’m assuming cheesecloth is what all of you use, right? Maybe my kitchen flop wasn’t really a kitchen flop all these years after all?!
Now be sure to share YOUR flops with us!
Yolanda says
I use square flat unbleached cotton birdseye diapers. 🙂
https://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/diapers.htm#flat
Lianda says
I just found your flops posting – I had actually written a note on Facebook about it: The Best Worst Cooking Mistake I made…. and what it taught me about succeeding in business. https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=141115259250968
You’ll get the recipe there – and I plan to make that mistake again tonight! (but this time I’ll use my food processor instead of the Blendtec blender.
do check out my website, or become a friend on Facebook!
Sarah Schatz - Allergy-Free & GAPS Menu Planners says
I don’t think it matters that much – I think it’s up to your preference. I have used both and when I don’t have cheesecloth on hand, I do use a dishcloth. Whatever floats your boat!
Nikki says
I have been using a food grade cheese cloth for all my cheeses and butter muslin from the New England cheese factory for my yogurt and soft cheeses. I don’t put them through the clothes washer. After each use I rinse them thoroughly, then fold them up into a zip top baggie and throw them in the freezer. about every third use or so I rinse them and then boil them for about five minutes in water with a good handfull of baking soda tossed in which keeps them very fresh.
Jeanmarie says
Kelly, I also prefer somewhat loose-weave dishcloths to cheesecloth, which is way too open, isn’t finished on the edges so frays, gets all weird and misshapen when you wash it, etc. I also found some good straining cloths made for straining jelly, that are finished with elastic on the edge (so it makes more of a sock shape than just a flat cloth). Pouring a liquid through even several layers of cheesecloth is like pouring it through a sieve, it doesn’t work very well in my experience. So I think this is not a flop at all!
Thia says
I have used flour-sack towels in the past, and I used cheesecloth *once* (it was such a disaster, I vowed never to use it again!). I use a jelly bag these days.
A couple decades ago, I had this wonderful thing called a YoChee maker. It only made small batches (about the size of a cone coffee filter). It was shaped like a funnel, with two layers, one solid with a hole at the tip, and one mesh over that. It snapped together, so you could store it flat. It was really nice. I have no idea whatever happened to it. I recently found out that they don’t make them any more. 🙁
Then again, since it was made of plastic, maybe it’s a good thing that I lost it!
Cindy says
I use coffee filters to strain my yogurt cheese. They work great and can go in the compost pile when I am done.
KitchenKop says
How in the world are those big enough?? (What kind of coffee maker do you USE?!! LOL!)
Cindy says
I am not making it is mass quantity-only a couple of cups at a time. LOL! I wish I had that giant coffee filter for my coffee though! I bet coffee filters for commercial coffee pots would work great for larger batches.
I cut holes in the bottom of a 16 ounce sour cream container and it holds my coffee filter. I place that container in a 32 ounce yogurt container and let the whey drain. I can put it in the fridge and it is out of the way. I have almost no counter space in my kitchen.
It is fun to see how everyone approaches this. So many different ways that all work great!
Lianda says
When I was studying Spanish in Costa Rica, the mother of the house where I stayed used a very sustainable method to make coffee every morning. She used one of her son’s white socks (he didn’t wear them anymore!) to put in the coffee grinds. Then you can dump the grinds into your compost heap!
Heather says
I have a permanent coffee filter right now, but most of the summer I’ve just been using a circle of scrap muslin & rinsing it out every day. Hubby says it makes better coffee than paper filters! (I don’t drink coffee, but he does)
KitchenKop says
Hey guys, here’s a picture of my cheesecloth after it went through the wash, what a mess: https://ow.ly/i/2Wke
Linda says
See, you are not alone, Kelly. I also have been usung a dishtowel. I have the flimsy cheesecloth, and after reading the other posts I might have to buy a sturdier one. Then again, what I’m using works for me! So, I don’t think this one counts as a flop.
Heather says
@Anna. Turnips fried with onions are nice. They’re also fine roasted with a chicken or pot roast. Or put in soup.
NancyO says
I guess I’ve used about everything mentioned. Today’s cheesecloth is worthless to reuse (comes out of the washer in shreds) and I can’t stand to toss stuff like that out. So I also have used the thin floursack-type dishcloth or unbleached muslin made into bags with drawstrings. However, I have to say…the old t-shirts work great and are my favorite! Before using them with food I cut them into large pieces, wash them with dishwashing liquid, and soak in a grapefruit seed extract solution. After a good rinsing they are wonderful…no fraying and they wash over and over. Today it’s considered being “green” to reuse and repurpose something like an old t-shirt…but it’s really just old fashioned thriftiness! 🙂
Alexis says
Its so good to know that I am not the only one out there that doesnt use cheesecloth to strain yogurt to get the whey. I have been using my husband’s old t-shirts (they are clean dont worry!) and they work great for me.
Susan, OCC says
I recently started straining yogurt and used a jelly bag with good success. I do have some birdseye towels around that I use for covering bread while it is rising. I think they were sold as diapers, but never used for that. I will try that, since the jelly bag seems to take forever.
Peggy says
I went to the fabric store and bought 3 yards of unbleached muslin. I use it to cover my ferments (sourdough, kefir, kombucha, pickles) while they work. I even have a bunch already cut into squares that fit over a wide mouth canning jar ready to use. I use muslin to strain whey, make cottage cheese and yogurt cheese, and toss them in the washing machine between uses. You can’t do that with cheesecloth!
Virginia says
I use a dish towel. Sometimes a thinner “flour sack” kind, if i’m being fussy, which is rare… Last night I quick-strained a bit of yogurt to make “cream cheese” for a quesadilla, and I used some cheesecloth – harder to handle – I prefer my dishcloth!!
Debbie Hammel says
I have always used a dish towel to strain my yogurt. Never tried cheesecloth and I like the result with a dish towel so I probably never will! 🙂
Kate says
I have a lot of birdseye cotton around from making diapers. I use it for all my kitchen things, too, though, like covering ferments or draining cheese. It’s thick enough to hold it well but it allows plenty to drip through too.
KitchenKop says
I learn so much from you guys! So I guess I’ll keep using my dishcloth, especially since that junky flimsy cheesecloth is even more so after going through the wash.
Don’t pay any attention to my sister up there, she’s getting old and doesn’t know what she’s saying…
Hahaaa!! OK, fine, I’ll tell you my ham story someday. Too bad we don’t have pictures, eh sister? I’ll save it for a future food flop. 🙂
Kel
Anna says
I use butter muslin from the New England Cheesemaking co – it’s a more open weave than your fabric, but much tighter than the very loose cheesecloth.
My flop this week was a leek and turnip frittata. I loosely followed this recipe, subbing ghee for the olive oil, adding grated cave-aged raw milk gruyere cheese, and saut
Ashley says
I’m not sure this falls under the category of flop, if you successfully ate it for days :).
Barbara Grant says
The stuff sold as cheesecloth in the grocery is not what is used in cheesemaking. That stuff is gauze. Ricki Carroll’s book on cheesemaking calls for using “butter muslin”. Pillowcases, flour sack towels work well.
Martha says
I’ve always used a dishtowel too. That is actually what the NT cookbook says to use so you are in good company. 🙂
Terri Smith says
I got one, sister, to show everyone how far you’ve come, tell them how you cooked your first ham!
Heather says
They whey will drain faster with proper cheesecloth, but I’ve been using part of an old (worn very thin) pillowcase, and it works fine. Your flour sack dishcloth is great, too.
Laurie N says
I use either my jelly strainer, an old t-shirt or an old pillowcase for straining, depending on what and how much I’m straining. I don’t like standard “grocery store” cheesecloth – too flimsy – although the cheesecloth I got from the cheesemaking supply place is acceptable (much sturdier stuff).
Fourth picture down in this post is my beautiful torn pillowcase rigged up to drain currants for jelly: https://commonsensehomesteading.blogspot.com/2009/07/currant-events.html
And my MIL always wonders why my kitchen looks like a tornado just went through…
Sarah says
I use a cheesecloth folded several times (but making sure I can still grab 4 corners) and set it inside a mesh strainer. This works great for me. It has never worked for me to do it through only one thickness of the cheesecloth. It kind of just slops right through!
When I wash it out I just rinse with clean water and take it outside and shake it really well. Hang it on the line or in the kitchen window and it dries in a few minutes. I’ve run them through the washer and dryer too but that does really shorten the life.
Sandy Munroe says
I don’t think that’s a flop, hehe. It has worked well right? I have cheesecloth, but I prefer to use a white cloth that I purposely bought for making yogurt cheese. It’s just a white solid fabric that I bought for like a dollar and can reuse and reuse. (It’s very similar to a pillow case) When making other cheeses I also prefer to use an actual more cloth like material. I only use the cheesecloth as a mesh for when sprouting lentils, etc.
Soli @ I Believe in Butter says
Hey, I’ve been knowingly using dish towels for the last year. Some of the liquid is soaked up by the fabric BUT I can wash and reuse the towel instead of tossing cheesecloth. Incidentally I do use cheesecloth to strain my broth.
Greta says
Ditto here! 🙂
Rosebud57 says
Fankhauser’s cheese page suggests using traditional handkerchiefs, (you know the plain white ones our grandpas always used…). I use a clean, white handkerchief to drain the whey and it works well. I’ve also used clean white tee’s (the ones the kids grew out of, cut open). Anything that doesn’t pill or fuzz will work, I think.
Pavil the Uber Noob says
I use a white flour sack cloth from Bed, Bath & Beyond.
I put the cloth with curds inside a seed sprouting bag and let that drip. I try to get the curds pretty dry and then put it inside a mason jar. The whey goes into another jar.
If you want to see some traditional Indian uses, look up U Tube under Paneer.
Enjoy
Pavil the Uber Noob says
Oops, my bad. Saw the picture and was thinking about something else.
Betsy says
I use a dishcloth, too. 🙂
Alea says
I think I meant too well. 😀 Time for bed…
Alea says
First, love the picture at the top of the post. I live at altitude and can relate to weel to that picture.
I use a thin dish cloth like yours. It takes longer than cheese cloth, but I prefer the results.
Mother Abbess says
I use a nut milk bag to strain my yogurt, it works great. You could also use a jelly bag.
Lenetta @ Nettacow says
Tee hee! That’s awesome! Actually, now that you mention it, a thin tea towel probably would work better for me than the cheesecloth I’m using as I seem to end up with yogurt… threads? in the bottom of my whey even when I use multiple layers.
Oh, and I find cheesecloth in the fabric department of my favorite big box store. (Don’t judge; I met my husband in the magazine aisle of that same chain.)