Cheesecloth & why you may want to buy this

What would you call a kid who doesnot eat meat, fish, milk and most vegetables – I do not know the technical term but I would call her (yes, my kid) ‘non-adjusting’. I have to make cottage cheese everyother day because that is the only protein thing she loves to eat. And a cheese cloth is a very useful thing to have in this scenario. As the name suggests, the cheesecloth is primarily used for making cheese, but it does have other uses.

Cheesecloth is a thin, plain weave, low thread count, soft fabric made of 100% cotton fibers. It is used mainly in the kitchen to make, yes you guessed it right from the name of this fabric, cheese. Other uses are to strain anything in the kitchen including nut milk, stock, oil etc.

Is Cheese cloth reusable?

It is available as one-time use cheesecloth as well as reusable cheesecloth. Re-usable means you can wash and reuse the cloth multiple times. So long as you clean and keep it dry, free of mold you can use it a lot.

This cream colored fabric with irregularities is available in a very loose weave to look almost like gauze or as an almost close (still somewhat open) weave fabric in a cream color. Different grades of cheesecloth are available with different looseness in the weave. So you have to look at the thread count number as well as grade mentioned to buy the cheesecloth you want.

How do you make cottage cheese with cheesecloth?

This is what I do – boil milk with some lime juice for some time. This will seperate curd and whey in the milk. Cheese cloth is used to filter the curd from the mixture. You can pour the mixture into the cloth and squeeze out the water.

You can use the cottage cheese in the loose form or form solid shape and then cut it up.

Other uses of Cheesecloth

Because of its loose weave, it is great for filtering purposes. When you make cottage cheese you have to filter out the whey while retaining the curdled solid materials which will eventually form cheese. It is not too loose that everything will fall out but not too thick that the thick whey water will not escape. The ideal cloth to make cheese, also because you can also shape it the way you want and keep it till it is ready.  You can also use it to drain liquid from food. It is multipurpose in a kitchen. 

You can make beautiful sprouts in wet cheese cloth – the perfect moist atmosphere to grow new sprouts.

My favorite use of cheese cloth is to make small drawstring bags to keep vegetables and fruits inside the fridge. It absorbs moisture like anything. Cheesecloth is also used as a cleaning cloth, because of  this and its lint-free nature.

Another use of the cheesecloth is as an inexpensive fabric with multiple uses in crafting and sewing. You can use it as underlining under most light-colored fabrics, for clothes or accessories; when you want a cheap fabric that can act as a foundation cheesecloth is available. You just have to decide on the tightness of the weave you want.

It can even be made into casual summer-ready loose tunics, if you like this look. The only problem is that as a cotton fabric it is prone to wrinkles. You have to iron it and still look all wrinkly. And it will also be slightly see through. 

When using the cheese cloth, you will have to ensure that you have finished the edges – you can simply turn under the edges and stitch in place. This is important because the fabric cut edges will fray a lot.

Maintaining the cheesecloth is a concern as the food particles should be fully removed from the cloth after use. You should use hot water or at least warm water to wash the residue from the cloth and then soak for some time in detergent. Rinse in flowing water. You can also machine wash after washing away the food particles with running water.

Related posts : Muslin fabric ; 135+ Different types of cotton fabric ; More on cotton fabric; Different types of fabric names