Behold, the humble coffee filter. Durable, cheap, lint-free, and you’ve probably already got them in your kitchen. If you don’t, you should get some — even if you don’t drink coffee. Why?
- Cover food in the microwave.
- Filter broken cork out of wine.
- Filter cooking grease for re-use. (See my post on how to render and store bacon fat. I hadn’t thought to use a coffee filter.)
- Weigh bulk foods. Put the filter on your scale before adding herbs, flour or sugar.
- Make an herb sachet to place in soup.
And how about some non-food uses?
- Put between fine china plates when storing to prevent scratches.
- Place in a cast-iron skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
- Wrap Christmas ornaments for storage.
- Line plant pots before adding soil to keep it from leaking out the drain holes.
- Sprout seeds. Wrap the seeds in the filter, moisten it, place in a plastic bag until they sprout.
- Blotting paper for pressed flowers.
And because they’re lint-free, you can use them instead of paper towels for:
- Cleaning windows, mirrors and chrome.
- Applying shoe polish.
- Holding tacos and other messy finger foods.
- Disposable popcorn bowl.
They’re also pretty useful for making coffee.
