Kitchen towels are the work-horse of the kitchen, an incomparable, useful, durable, and dependable kitchen tool. Every cook relies on their kitchen towel to do a variety of things helpful in getting that meal to the table. But there are details, history, and choices to be explained.
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History of House Towels
History
Going back in history, when wet, we either dried in front of a fire, used dry foliage, or perhaps an animal pelt.
It wasn’t until the 17th century, that the towel was invented, according to Wikipedia. Commonly, its invention has been assigned to Bursa, Turkey. These Turkish towels began as a flat, woven piece of cotton or linen called a peshtamal, often hand-embroidered. Long enough to wrap around the body, peshtamal were originally fairly narrow, but are now wider and commonly measure 90 by 170 centimetres (35 in × 67 in).
- We have these bath towels in the RV because they are fast to absorb water, dry more quickly than any towel we’ve had, fold up tightly so take up less space, and are light weight so easy to carry.
Note on Turkish or Egyptian Cotton
This is a side note, but one that comes up quite often. The difference between Turkish and Egyptian cotton towels are related to absorbency and speed of drying. Both cottons offer long, absorbent fibers, but Egyptian cotton tends to be more absorbent and slower to dry. Turkish cotton, on the other hand, are slightly less absorbent and are quicker to dry.
A Home for Towels
These days, each household has a set of towels they use in various rooms.
- Bathroom: Bath towels, bath mats (thicker towel material), wash cloths, and hand towels.
- Kitchen: Kitchen towels, paper towels, dish cloths or sponges, etc.
- Beach or Spa towels.
- Decorative Towels (not intended for use, generally in bathrooms or kitchens).
- Rags: Made from torn towels and clothing.
- Some have quilted, towel-type curtains if they live in cold areas.
Kitchen Towels
Although many are cute, with witty graphics, perhaps nice colors that match your kitchen decor, so many believe not just any towel can make a great kitchen towel. My spouse, for instance, thinks linen-based kitchen towels are great because they tend to be well made and not ugly; absorbent enough for drying hands and cleaning up spills, yet easy to wash and get stains off; and importantly linen does not leave streaks on glasses. This point of view, is the main issue with kitchen towels, cooks use them for all sorts of kitchen-related activities and generally they are not equally good in each.
Dish Towels of Yore (hemp or bamboo linen)
Humans washed and hand dried eating and cooking utensils for eons, using rags or pieces of cloth that were at hand. That same cloth might be used for all types of purposes, some for which we now have individual towels. It was not until the mid-18th century that a specific kitchen towel was created.
Tea Towels (cotton or linen)
Tea towels started in England, and the name came from their use in drying china and tea sets, importantly, without leaving scratches or lint (1). Partially as a status symbol, as these were expensive in th 18th century, these towels were part of the more decorative place setting for having tea with guests. Clean and folded, tea towels served as a soft and insulated place to set a warm teapot. But also, tea towels were used in baskets to cover freshly warm biscuits and scones.
- British + Irish Tea towels: So these tea towels were cotton or linen, and were roughly the size of a hand towel: ranging from 16″ x 28″ to 18″ x 30″.
- Japanese Tea towels are a small rectangular cloth used to wipe tea-bowls are part of the tea ceremony kit. They are white linen or hemp cloth, bleached white, with specific hems, and are rectangular in shape. (Shirayuki is a source for Japanese Tea Towels.)
For rich families, the household servants would make these soft towels, most often out of linen, a fibre derived from the flax of linseed plants. Often the women would embroider designs to show off needlework skills. Some of these “richly embroidered” towels became family heirlooms passed down through the generations.
- Dutch Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was notoriously known for running out of canvases, so he would often paint on whatever was near to hand, including tea towels. The Large Plane Trees, was painted on either a tablecloth or a tea towel from the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole mental asylum where he once stayed. Anyone who has a chance to look closely at this painting will see very faint red rectangles beneath areas where the paint is thinner, evidence of the patterning in the cloth beneath (1).
- ‘Wheatfields in a Mountainous Landscape’ was also done on a tea towell (1).
Sack Towels
During the Great Depression (1929-1939), American producers of flour, sugar, seed and other foods were delivered in plain cotton sackcloths as a way to save shipping costs. Prior they had used wooden barrels.
These large white, cotton material created a very clever marketing scheme, as manufacturers started to advertise on the sacks. Because basic fabrics were hard to come by, either by being unavailable or unaffordable, many families turned to recycling those sackcloths as clothing or other home materials, including kitchen towels. Statistics show that an estimated 3.5 million women and children wore flour sack clothing during the Great Depression (2) in the USA.
- By the way, the simple cotton sacks were used all over the world for food storage instead of wooden barrels as it was cheaper to transport.
- The reuse of the cloth material was likewise commonly used for clothing or household items like towels, curtains, table cloths, napkins, wash cloths and so on. (3).
But not satisfied with just the plain sackcloth, RadicalTeaTowel writes, homemakers: embroidered them with intricate patterns, despite the difficulty of working with the coarse weave of the sacks.This started a “cottage industry” where women would trade with each other and thereby expand the artistry and craft in their homes.
Which then, in turn, influenced the same manufacturers to utilize artists and designers to create the “sought-after” flour sacks fabric. Thereby selling more of their product and building brand loyalty.
Such a collaborative endeavor lasted from the late 1800s through the 1940s. Except for the introducton of petroleum plastic containers, those sacks might have kept on going. But plastic and oil won. However, what has remained is the flour sack towel, the most desirable kitchen or tea towels due to the properties of softness, absorbency, and lint-free qualities. Here is where you can find them.
- FlourSackTowels: 130-thread count, heavyweight, 100 percent cotton towel answering to the classic, vintage flour sack style of towel that holds a pivotal place in history. They manufacture the cotton towels from flour sack fabrics in India.
Terry Towels
At this same time, the 1930’s, Terry Towels were developed. They were very soft and absorbent and were often used to dry dishes, hands, and for soaking up spills. They were often also used in larger sizes, showing up in high-end hotels at the time.
Paper Towels
Unfortunately, starting in 1931, many of us moved away from those cloth towels and began using more paper towels, and now food is packaged often in plastic containers instead of cloth. When first introduced, we thought these things a scientific revolution of cheap and disposable products, but eventually these new inventions proved very bad for the environment, and ultimately for our bodies as well.
Glass Towels (microfiber)
Various websites talk about the Japanese inventing the microfiber glass cloth during the mid 1970s, but then others claim that it was introduced in England around 1986. But IPCWorldWide claims it was Sweden that first started marketing the microfiber cloth back in 1990, but affirm they were first conceived by the Japanese.
This cloth is made from polyester and polyamide. The microfiber fabric has a high detergency, and able to pick up microscopic dirt better than other cloth. It also is excellent in absorbing moisture, and can do so faster than cotton since it’s fiber absorbs like a sponge. Additionally, microfiber is positively charged so they can attract negatively charged dirt and grease. So surfaces can be cleaned without chemical detergents.
European Kitchen Towels
The only thing I could find on its origin stated that this was invented by a Swedish Engineer Curt Lindquist ~1949. His idea was to put a sponge in a meat grinder, flatten it out, and mix it with cotton. Thus, the Swedish Dish Cloth was born.
European Dish Cloths, aka Swedish Dish Cloths, are reusable sponge cloths made from a sturdy, and sustainable combination of biodegradable cellulose with cotton. While they are the size of a washcloth, they have the absorbency of a good sponge. Grove reports that, depending upon type of use, these cloths can last 9-12 months before they are composted.
Yes they can be used to wash dishes, but they are an all purpose tool in the kitchen that can clean up messes of various types.
Towels as Tools
Towels have been used in many ways in the kitchen. Here are some of the ways I have used or seen towels used.
- To dry my hands.
- To dry my work surface.
- To dry wet dishes.
- To clean up spills on dishes about to be served.
- Towels can take the place of hot pot holders when grabbing a dish of pasta to pour over a sink, or an oven mitt to take a dish out of the oven. Or when the handle of a skillet is just too darn hot to grab.
- A damp towel wrapped on the bottom of a bowl can keep the bowl from slipping making whipping its contents easier.
- It is used to stop and sop-up various spills in the kitchen, from juice to grease.
- In an emergency it has wrapped a knife-wound, to prevent the spread of blood around the kitchen.
- It is often used to open a tight lid, while other options may be a rubber band, a jar opening tool, or just banging a utensil against the lid to create some traction.
- Some people use towels to remove skins from hot or boiled meat or vegetables.
- I also use our kitchen towels to waft the fire alarm when the smoke from my cooking sets it off.
Hope this was clarifying. Personally, I like gifting and purchasing these towels as statement makers, but also really do use them for nearly everything in the kitchen except wiping up egg stuff (I use paper towels and toss them right away).
My preference is for Zeppoli Classic Dish Towels, but whatever you prefer, these are really a multi-purpose kitchen tool. Usually, in a professional setting I will have one damp blue cloth for cleaning as I go, and one white dry one for my hands and to grab things. Key is to not confuse them and grab something hot with a damp towel.
Another thing to note, home kitchen towels are generally filthy with contamination. In a professional setting all towels are tossed in the laundry at the end of the shift automatically. If the towel gets really messed up with food, it gets tossed into the laundry immediately, this is especially so if it has meat juice, or egg stuff, or other easily contaminated liquids or solids. Ideally we would do this at home as well. But reality is often the kitchen towels are lucky to get tossed into the laundry even once a week. Not a good practice, so clean them at least at the end of the week.
—Patty
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