Butter-muslin is a delicate and distinguished form of muslin that has become a familiar kitchen helper nowadays. The name says that the fabric is related to making butter but it has a lot of other purposes to use. You can make soft cheese cloth, strain broth, brew beer, and so on with this fabric.
However, there is a misconception that cheese cloth is similar to butter muslin which isn’t true. We have shown the properties and usage of butter muslin and how it is different from cheese cloth in the discussion below.
What is butter muslin cloth?
Among the versatile grades and quality of muslin cloth, butter muslin fabric is popular for its particular usage. It becomes a great kitchen tool and helps people with many kitchen stuffs.
Like traditional muslin, this type of muslin cloth is soft to touch and easy to wash. Due to its excellent properties, the cloth is highly used in household activities and mostly for certain cooking purposes. However, the best use of this cotton fabric goes in the cheesemaking process, removing buttermilk from cheese, extracting, drain soft cheeses, and so on.
The use of muslin in refining homemade buttermilk and cheese has become so popular that the fabric has been dubbed butter muslin. Although butter muslin is also used in sewing and quilting dresses, curtains, etc, the high absorbency made it usable for cooking.
What is butter-muslin fabrics used for?
What are butter muslin fabrics used for?
Butter-muslin has become a staple for many kitchens uses. Apart from making hard cheese to drain large curds, and line cheese molds, it is also used in clothing, curtains, backing quilts, making baby clothes, etc. According to the usefulness of butter muslin fabric, it is a must-have tool for your kitchen and other household works.
For your convenience, here described some of the best uses of this fabric —
Extracting
Butter-muslin cloth is best for extracting oil and natural essence for cooking and preservation. Using butter muslin fabric, you can entirely collect the extract from herbs, cold brew coffee beans, and also can make butter and juices. It is used as a kitchen helper to remove moisture from vegetables. Butter muslin can be used to extract CBD oil from hemp.
Wrapping food
Butter-muslin is used to wrap fresh green seasonings to keep them safe from ants and insects while conserving the quality. This is the organic way to keep up dry cooking materials for how long you want.
Filter
Butter-muslin can be used as a good filter if you have any liquid to purify. It includes filtering not only soft cheese or yogurt but water and other liquid items also. If you are a coffee drinker, then you can consider this as a coffee filter.
Drain soft cheese
Food-grade butter muslin is plain weaved and usually has 90 yarns per square inch. So, it is great for draining soft cheeses, Making jelly, jam, desserts, and yogurt. Helps your cheese smooth & beautiful.
Cheese makers used to drain it for all kinds of soft cheeses including Ricotta, Fromage Blanc, Marscapone, Cream Cheese, Paneer, Queso Blanco, and Cottage Cheese.
Strainer
Butter-muslin is a good strainer and can be used for straining broth or stoke, making regular yogurt into Greek yogurt, and also straining potatoes to make them super crispy. This is the easiest way to strain out liquid or anything that you don’t want to mix up solid parts like straining out nut milk by compressing a bag of nuts.
Clothing
As butter-muslin is originally a fabric, it is ideal for making clothing, curtains, tablecloths, and other household items. Muslin is a 100% cotton fabric and so soft, thin, and breathable. Although cotton is now used for woven muslin, it is not real muslin cotton. Therefore, one cannot expect quality like the legendary muslin made in Dhaka. Remember that, butter muslin isn’t higher grade muslin to use for clothing. You can find others grade of muslin available in the market.
Is butter muslin the same as cheesecloth?
You probably know about cheesecloth if you are a cooking person as the name regards that the cloth is somehow related to cheese. Not just cheese, the cloth is also used for other household purposes and therefore so popular among housewives.
Till now we have got to know all the properties of butter-muslin. Cheesecloth comes as slightly similar to butter muslin and is used for similar purposes. But they aren’t the same although cheesecloth is a little bit thicker than muslin fabric. Moreover, Thick cheesecloth is mainly used to make hard cheese for extracting large curds while soft and thin butter muslin is best for draining soft cheese or lining cheese molds for the smooth look to your cheese.
What is the difference between butter muslin cloth and cheesecloth?
What is the difference between butter muslin and cheesecloth?
Cheesecloth vs butter muslin isn’t a big issue. It’s all about the thickness and the purpose to use that decides which one should you choose between butter muslin and cheesecloth. The most common differences are,
- Cheesecloths are coarser than butter muslin. It is thinner and has better smoothness than cheesecloth
- Cheesecloths have been used to make hard cheese, drain long curds, and line molds when butter Muslin cloth is a fine cheesecloth used for draining softer cheese
- It is often preferred over cheesecloth because of its ability to absorb liquids without dripping
- If you want to consider quality then butter muslin is recommended as it has a finer weave than coarser cheesecloth. Therefore, it is slightly more expensive than cheesecloth
Is butter muslin fabric reusable?
Yes, it is possible to re-use. You can wash the fabric through the machine or by hand and reuse it further. Don’t forget to clean it properly after every use otherwise, the flavor and residue will remain and can mix with your food.
How do you clean butter muslin?
Butter muslin is reusable and machine washable. So, you should clean and wash the fabric properly after using it. As you are going to use it again and again, you should be careful when washing the delicate fabric and don’t end up with chunks on it.
Here is how you can clean butter muslin in the right way–
Rinse
First of all, you should rinse the cloth with fresh cold water and remove all the visible and non-visible residues from it. Do it thoroughly with cold water because hot water can help them to stick with the fabric.
Wash
You can machine wash it or get a bowl of water and wash it by hand. And whichever method is applied, you may have to repeat the process until it is completely clear. Do not use harmful detergents as their chemical compounds can transfer to the fabric and get into your food. Use mild detergent or biodegradable detergent for this.
Dry
Hang on a safe place for a few minutes or can use a drier to pack it up quickly. Fold and store the cheesecloth or butter-muslin in a plastic bag to ensure the best condition for the next use.
Let’s Recap
Butter-muslin and cheesecloth are different in terms of quality and price. Also, they have distinguished purposes to use. If you are looking for food-grade organic fabric to use in cooking, you need to ensure that the cloth is 100% cotton not a combination of polyester and linen. Butter-muslin makes the best sense of food-grade biodegradable cloth. This nicely woven piece of cloth can help you make DIY soft cheese and Greek yogurt in your home.
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