# flour sack dish cloths for draining cheese



## old dominion (Oct 25, 2007)

I don't have any cheesecloth for draining. I do have the very thin 100% cotton dish towels that are labeled flour sack dish cloths. Do I need to buy muslin or will this work. I am just playing with the cheese making process for now but as we all know who knows where this goat journey will take us.

Thank you,

Jolene


----------



## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

Those dish towels are basically the same thing as muslin. Another option is to use a pillow case or cheap sheet. Give it a good wash, then boil to disinfect. You can go to walmart or a fabric store and buy regular muslin, too. It runs about $2-3/yard


----------



## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

yours should work just fine.


----------



## Madfarmer (Nov 18, 2008)

Places that carry canning supplies should have cheesecloth, 'cuz it's used for straining juice for jelly.

Tom


----------



## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

It depends on what type of curd you are draining. For chevre the pillowcase or 250 count bed sheets work fine, cut them 30" square. I scour the Goodwill and other thrift stores, they run about $2 ea and are washed, sanitized and reused. I use Hoegger's plyban for my feta and pressed cheese curds and they are also washable and reusable. Inexpensive at $3 for 2 sheets. I just wish the plyban came in larger sheets. Jennifer


----------



## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

Jennifer, you can buy larger plyban. Nelson Jameson sells it, for example

http://www.nelsonjameson.com/pdf/NJPackagingIngredientsCatalog2009.pdf

Look on page 475.

You can also seal plyban sheets together for bigger overall sizes. It's plastic, after all.


----------



## Bernice (Apr 2, 2009)

Thats true Jolene, you never know what we will do next on our journey in life. 

Those flour sack dishcloths should do the job as everyone suggested. I've used pillowcases before but didn't like them (and maybe it's because I didn't check for the thread count, never thought of that) as well as cheesecloth. I stocked up a few yrs back on cheesecloth at a store when we lived in Arkansas, one of those Ollie type stores that sells liquidated items. 

This is going to sound gross and strange, but pantyhose works really well. Yrs ago I was in a pinch for cloth to strain in, so I remembered I read someplace that pantyhose will do. So I tried it and it worked nicely. I had tons of pantyhose still new in the package I bought for work but never wore because I can dress casual. So I posted this to the then precurser to Homesteading Today (HT) when it was then known as the Countryside Forum. I got a reply from this guy who was very very concerned that I had used the crotch and heaven forbid! I responed back saying that I didn't mean use the crotch part and I didn't mean used either!


----------



## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

You can also buy paint straining bags from Home Depot/Lowes. They come in 1 gallon and 5 gallon size. They're nylon, and similar to pantyhose, except they're already in bag form so you can drain your curd in them and hang the bag.


----------



## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

Thanks Pav. For some reason I could not open the file, but I do have their current catalogue so I will check. Thanks again, Jennifer

Yeah Bernice, thread count does make a difference. After a while with all the washing and sanitizing the fabric does deteriorate and I have to toss them out. It does take a great many times to get to that point. Given what I do, the fact that a $2.00 investment can go so far is phenomenal. Jennifer 
I need all the cost savings I can get.


----------

