As the name suggests, tea towels are used to wash and dry dishes. They are especially useful when washing dishes by hand and you want to speed up the drying process or prevent water stains from forming. What makes a tea towel a tea towel is simple its role in a fast-paced restaurant environment or in a personal kitchen. These towels can help you get a better grip, keep dishes warm, and surfaces dry and moist.
A dishcloth is plain, usually white, often striped and very utilitarian. They are absorbent and durable and should be available in bulk, because you need a clean one every time you cook. A good game to buy is this one, which Rhoda, our food editor, uses at home. Similar to our cutting board trick, slide a tea towel under your mixing bowls.
You can shake off without the hassle of having to slide a bowl. It is especially useful when you beat egg whites to stiff peaks or make homemade aioli. Some of these products and their importance are more obvious than others, but one of the most overlooked aspects in a kitchen is almost always kitchen towels. Tea towels are often kept separate from other tea towels and have the most limited use of all types of tea towels.
Tea towels come in a variety of colors and textures, so they are easy to mix and match to best fit your home decor. That may sound a little strange, but the fact is that anyone with a decent knowledge of the capabilities of tea towels can find endless ways to use them. A proper kitchen towel is thick and durable, making it easy to absorb spills on the countertop or excess liquids in the food preparation area. It is usually better to use linen tea towels as a decoration or to polish imperfections, but most of all just as a decoration.
The vast majority of tea towels are made of cotton, although seams or fabric may differ. Most homeowners have a drawer in their kitchen filled to the brim with tea towels of different shapes, sizes and patterns. Simply place the green leaves on your clean kitchen towel and roll it up gently and twist it to remove excess moisture. Tea towels are constantly close to kitchen workers and are so essential to kitchen practices that you may forget about them.
While you may not use a giant unfolded kitchen towel most of the time, being able to fold it in multiple layers can help you use it for more things. Kitchen hygiene is vital to maintaining a reliable restaurant, and towels must also meet the guidelines. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing and accentuating your kitchen decor, tea towels are functional and one of the most versatile items you can have in your kitchen. Tea towels have many uses, but there are also quite a few ways to misuse them, most of them revolve around sanitary errors.
A tea towel, on the other hand, is a workhorse in the kitchen with dozens of uses, including many DIY projects that get the simple dishcloth out of the kitchen and bring it to life anywhere else you live, work, play or entertain. At the bottom of a laundry hamper, wet tea towels can become stinky and run the risk of infecting other items.