Jumble

[magid]

Query: what fabric would you use instead of cheesecloth in food prep if you wanted something reusable?

Happy Juneteenth! Now a holiday in MA, too! (Thanks to Hammercock for the link.)

It's strange listening to songs I knew as a teenager, realizing that I only knew the refrain, if any words at all. Now, the words are clear; then, not nearly so much (with heavier rock, anyway). My only theory is that my hearing is less acute, so there's less competing with the words.

Beacon St. outbound in Brookline being reconfigured between St. Mary's St. and Coolidge Corner so it will be two lanes instead of three. Which is fine (if likely to make traffic more interesting, especially if the dedicated left turn lanes are deleted), but it doesn't look like they're using the extra space particularly well. The angled parking on the left is still there in the same place, as are the other lanes; there's just a rumble strip where the last dashed white line used to be. It would've been great if they'd shifted the lanes over a bit and added a bike lane. (And until they move the street signs on the left, they look really silly with so much pavement around them (not sidewalk).)

News of the strange: scientists have set up a dolphin chat line for the child (calf?) of deaf dolphin to learn to talk correctly.

For thems that are in Kendall Square: there are free concerts every Thursday, noon - 2 pm, June 7 through September 13.

Yesterday's fauna note 1: someone rode a horse on the city side of Storrow Drive early yesterday morning, given the manure evidence. It seems an odd place to ride, if one has a horse in the city at all. (I can't imagine that either the mounted police or the horse-drawn cab people would bring their horses there; it's not the pretty, water side of the highway, and it's noisy with all the passing traffic.) Odd.

Yesterday's fauna note 2: in the evening I saw what looked like it might be red-tailed hawk swoop into the rafters under Route 93, just south of Assembly Square Mall. Very cool.

Comments

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I bought a bit of nylon mesh once at a kitchen store. Works like cheesecloth and washes clean with a bit of washing up liquid.

[coorr.livejournal.com]

I use nylon mesh bags instead of cheese cloth when brewing for just this reason. I was throwing out the cheese cloth but can reuse the mesh.

I find its more effective too because the size of the mesh is more fixed than with cheese cloth.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Where did you get them around here? (Brewing store, general kitchen store, dollar store...?)

[coorr.livejournal.com]

Modern Brewer on Mass ave in Cambridge, roughly near Davis Sq.

Kitchen stores are hard to find these days. You could probably find them at a dollar store but that would be a crap shoot and they aren't that expensive.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Cool; I know where Modern Brewer is.

Kitchen stores aren't nearly as thick on the ground as they used to be, though Tag's in Porter Square makes up for much.

[coorr.livejournal.com]

Tags makes up for many things, for a price.

Back in my home town we had a great hardware store. You could go in there and describe any problem and they would find and sell you the widget you needed to fix it in no time. Sure, it cost twice as much (or more) as going to the home despot, but at least you got out of there with your sanity and the part you were looking for.

[magid.livejournal.com]

For someone as non technical as me, that sounds like a great hardware store. I'd totally pay more to know I had the right widget, not to mention accurate and quick customer service is always great.

Though how much sanity could I escape with if I didn't have a full complement going in?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that sounds about right.

[yagagriswold.livejournal.com]

I have a bunch of old bandanas that I use as napkins and sometimes for food-prep purposes.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Ooh, you just reminded me of the Texas bandanna I haven't used yet! Though perhaps having colors is not ideal.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Cheesecloth substitute: Hmm, perhaps a thin cloth napkin? Some of my napkins are surprisingly thick fabric, but some are almost as thin as bed sheets.

I wonder if muslin cloth would be the right sort of weight/weave. That's what immediately comes to mind, anyway.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I thought of muslin too, then started thinking about dresses in the Little House books, which made me wonder whether I was on the right track.

I'm hoping to use something dedicated to the task, especially because it'll be used for dairy, not pareve. (The plan being to attempt making soft cheese.)

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Well, since I know muslin is used to mock up clothes, I am under the impression that it's kind of a light-weight fabric, which does seem like the right sort of thing for making yogurt-cheese. When my mom made yogurt cheese, I know she used cheesecloth, but because cheesecloth is so loosely woven, she had to use multiple layers - so it seems to me that using one layer of a tighter weave would effectively be the same. (And a quick search on "muslin" took me to the Wikipedia entry, which mentioned using muslin in some kinds of kitchen stuff-straining - coffee filter? I read it all of 10 minutes ago and already I have forgotten!)

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

fine nylon mesh works very well.
if you dont mind only being able to use it for kitchen? veil weight linen.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming using it only for the kitchen; I just don't want to start using cheesecloth a lot when I could reuse something else.

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

That dolphin story elevated my faith in humanity; how wonderful to hear of such ingenuity and compassion.

[magid.livejournal.com]

You know, you're a much better person than I: my first thoughts were wondering in what ways do these scientists not know enough about the issue to deal with it completely.