The Shop

The Best Thing I've Given My Kitchen

May 29, 2016

Leave it to the girl who writes about loving white walls to have a proclivity for plain-Jane kitchen linens. Would it help if I told you that a dear friend once brought a cake to my dinner party, wrapped in this very linen, but tie-dyed pink? I might hang the white one on my stove with greater regularity, but hey. Baby steps.

Just look at this all-purpose beauty.

We should ask of our kitchen linens what we ask of our aprons. That is: First they are a tool—they help us stay clean, and so they must absorb, and move with us, and work as fast as we do in the kitchen. An errant frill might slow us down, a paisley might distract us from our pie crust. Or maybe I’m just no fun.

I’ve been praising these flour sack tea towels, which are made from 100% cotton by Studiopatró in San Francisco, since we launched our Shop almost three years ago. I promise you it’s not because I haven’t found a product as boring or budget-friendly—it’s actually because they’ve improved the way my kitchen works exponentially.

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They play cleaner, apron, oven mitt, and trivet—and they're massive, so they work just as well for all of these things as they do for laying out on your counter as an impromptu dish rack.

And when they’re shiny new, they also play gift quite well. If it makes you feel dour presenting your host with a folded piece of white cotton, just let her try it—you’ll hear from her in a week or so.

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • Goldy
    Goldy
  • Jennifer Spencer
    Jennifer Spencer
  • Samantha Medina Parker
    Samantha Medina Parker
Kenzi Wilbur

Written by: Kenzi Wilbur

I have a thing for most foods topped with a fried egg, a strange disdain for overly soupy tomato sauce, and I can never make it home without ripping off the end of a newly-bought baguette. I like spoons very much.

3 Comments

Goldy June 1, 2016
Interesting. Think i'm gonna buy one of these things.
 
Jennifer S. May 30, 2016
I buy my flour sacking dishcloths at the grocery store for $5/3. They are great tools for all kinds of things, including a relatively lint free and delicate option for drying crystal.
 
Samantha M. May 29, 2016
Do they stain easily?