Title: strainers-msg
Subject: Period sieves and strainers.
Author: Edited by Mark S. Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: medieval, utensil, period, strainer, sieve, mesh

strainers-msg - 1/25/04

Period sieves and strainers.

NOTE: See also the files: p-kitchens-msg, utensils-msg, ovens-msg, forks-msg, spoons-msg, naalbinding-msg.

************************************************************************
NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that
I  have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some
messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium.
These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I  have done  a limited amount  of  editing. Messages having to do  with
seperate topics  were sometimes split into different files and sometimes
extraneous information was removed. For instance, the  message IDs  were
removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I
make  no claims  as  to the accuracy  of  the information  given  by the
individual authors.

Please  respect the time  and  efforts of  those who have written  these
messages. The  copyright status  of these messages  is  unclear  at this
time. If  information  is  published  from  these  messages, please give
credit to the orignator(s).

Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
************************************************************************

Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 21:55:46 -0500
From: Gunnora Hallakarva <gunnora at bga.com>
Subject: ANST - Naalbinding and Sieves

Stephan li Rous asked what naalbinding was.

Naalbinding is also known as "single-needle knitting."  The technique
produces a looped fabric, much as true knitting or crochet does.
Naalbinding is an extremely ancient technique and examples can be found in
almost every culture.  Certainly it existed in the Egypt of the pharohs, as
well as the Viking Age. 

Mistress Alix Tiburga has been working on developing instructions with
step-by-step diagrams for the technique, which is extremely simple to do
but very difficult to explain without a hands-on demonstration.  ideally,
the technique uses a thick needle with a big eye, often made of antler or
bone, but a tapestry needle can be substituted in a pinch.

A class in the technique was taught at 3YC.  Baroness Thordis
Hakonarsdatter and Master Ragnar Ulfgarsson brought it back to Ansteorra.
Thordis taught me, I taught Rhiane and Alix, and Alix has gone nuts and is
teaching anyone else she can get to sit still long enough.  

You can buy expensive $15 needles direct from Iceland on the web
(http://www.dmv.com/~iceland/tools/nale.html, or see
http://www.dmv.com/~iceland/instructions/gloves.html for a photo of the
finished fabric), but I've been making them from antler from fallow deer
and from whitetail deer for no cost other than the labor.  The best needles
to work with are curved near the tip.  Mine looks like a finger crooked in
a "come here" gesture.  If you want to make your own needles, soak the
antler two days in cold water, then boil them for about an hour or so.  Use
a sharp knife to shape and smooth the needle.  It doesn't need a sharp
point, and in fact does better with a rounded one.  Leave the butt end
large enough for a hole up to 1/4" in diameter.  Drill the hole, and
carefully smooth the edges and inside of the hole.  Sand to finish, and
buff well with beeswax.

I notice that Stephan li Rous actually has some information about
naalbinding in his Florilegium files at
[obsolete link snipped. The new link is:]
http://www.florilegium.org/files/TEXTILES/naalbinding-msg.html

Martinson and Hald both have good photos of strainers... they are made of
cow-hair, not horse-hair, to correct my earlier post.

Geijir, Agnes.  Birka III: Die Textilfunde aus den Graben.  Uppsala: Kungl.
Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akadamien. 1938.

Hald, Margrethe.  Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials: A
Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles.
Archaeological-Historical Series 21. Copenhagen: National Museum of
Denmark.  1980.

Hutchinson, Elaine.  Nalebinding: The History, Origins, Construction and
Use of 'Needle-Binding' with Specific Reference to the 'Coppergate Sock'.
http://www.ftech.net/~regia/naalbind.htm

Ligon, Linda.  "The Ubiquitous Loop" Piecework.  Jan/Feb 1994. pp. 64-66.

Martinson, Kate.  "Scandinavian Nalbinding: Needle-Looped Fabric." The
Weaver's Journal. Fall 1987. pp. 12-15.  

Nordland, O.  Primitive Scandinavian Textiles in Knotless Netting.  Oslo.
1961.

Rutt, Richard.  A History of Handknitting.  Loveland, CO: Interweave Press.
 1987.

Turnau, Irena.  "The Diffusion of Knitting in Medieval Europe." Cloth and
Clothing in Medieval Europe: Essays in Memory of Professor E.M. Carus
Wilson. Pasold Studies in Textile History 2. eds. B.B. Harte and K. G.
Ponting.  London: Pasold.  1983. pp.  368-389.

Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde

Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 08:54:14 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - whipped cream

Par Leijonhufvud wrote:
> > Sometimes at various folk festivals and Amish shops these hair strainers can
> > still be found. If you come across one, get it! They are extremely fine
> > hatched and when used as described by Master Adamantius produce a very
> > exceptable 'whipped' product.
> 
> Anyone who has a source to (or description of) how these were made? I
> would presume some sort of knitting/naalbindning/weaving, and placed in a
> "frame", but that is only conjecture.
> 
> They certainly sound healthier than the bronze one supposedly found in
> Oseberg. Not to mention easier to make.

In their simplest form, they appear to have been like a drum with a mesh
head, used inverted. You can still buy flour sieves in this form. For
that matter, you can also still buy bolting cloth. Hair sieves (which
are occasionaly specified as such, or as herseyves, in some medieval
English recipes) might have taken that form, or more likely, kind of
like a modern jelly bag. This is a gizmo that is more or less a
fine-mesh bag supported with a ring to keep its mouth open, often
mounted on a sort of tripod, so there is room for a pot or bowl
underneath. A support like that would be a good idea in cases where food
is forced through them, rather than simply straining liquid through
them, which seems to be about half the time. Modern strainers are made
to rest on top of the container you are straining into, but then they
are also made of a more rigid design than a mesh strainer.

BTW, just in response to Lord Stefan, who asked if the warp and weft of
a hair strainer were actually woven or simply laid out in two
perpendicular layers, I have no information about this specifically, but
my guess is that you would get an inconsistent and unsatisfactory
product with a strainer made that way: it would tend to open up large
gaps at inconvenient times.

Adamantius 

Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 10:26:24 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - food mills

Charles McCN wrote:
> I'm just trying to relate this back to medieval cooking technology and
> techniques - I don't know of them using the wire strainers that we have
> in our kitchens.

Perforated sheet-metal colanders appear to have been used in period, and
modern chinois strainers (a conical strainer of fine wire mesh, usually,
something like a heavier-duty jelly bag) as well as a large, open,
drum-style flour sieve (a wide, flat cylinder with mesh across one side)
would be similar to period strainers.

Adamantius

Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 21:14:48 -0500
From: margali <margali at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: Re- SC - food mills

i have a nifty drawing in my cookbook on apicius of a metal piercework
wine strainer that mentions they also used similar strainers for other
things.
margali

Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 20:21:51 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: Re- SC - food mills

Mark Harris wrote:
> I asked about medieval strainers a while back but let's try again. Anyone
> seen any pictures or descriptions of medieval strainers? In the earlier
> discussion, some people were of the opinion that these were of horsehair
> but didn't know if the horsehair was woven or simply laid across something.
> 
> So, anybody have info on something different or more or this?

A horsehair sieve would pretty much have to be woven, since it's the
only way I can think of to keep the strands from simply spreading apart
when a large solid object pushed against them. Some sieves (which are
pretty much the same as strainers) appear to have been made with cloth.
Both the modern jelly bag and the period "Sleeve of Hippocrates" are
examples of this type of thing. Cloth-lined sieves were also used for
bolting flour, which is how the bran was sifted out of stone-ground
whole wheat flour, producing "white" flour. You can still buy a textile
product called bolting cloth today, although I imagine it is used for
other things now.

A Sleeve of Hippocrates, BTW, is a fine cloth strainer, quite similar to
a jelly bag, conical in shape, attached to a hoop to hold it open. It
was used by doctors to strain finely ground medicinal spices, etc., out
of infusions. One such was an infusion of spices and sugar in wine,
named for that sleeve: Hippocras.

Adamantius

Date: Mon, 03 Nov 1997 20:29:23 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: Re- SC - food mills

margali wrote:
> I have a nifty drawing in my cookbook on apicius of a metal piercework
> wine strainer that mentions they also used similar strainers for other
> things.
> margali

I have a vague recollection of reading about how some perforated metal
(bronze?) vessels were found in Scotland on a dig in a known Celtic
site, and believed to have been used for cheesemaking.

Adamantius 

Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 08:33:49 -0600
From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
Subject: RE: Re- SC - food mills

>>I'm just trying to relate this back to medieval cooking technology and 
>>techniques - I don't know of them using the wire strainers that we have 
>>in our kitchens.
>
>I asked about medieval strainers a while back but let's try again. Anyone
>seen any pictures or descriptions of medieval strainers? In the earlier
>discussion, some people were of the opinion that these were of horsehair 
>but didn't know if the horsehair was woven or simply laid across something.
>
>So, anybody have info on something different or more or this?
>
>Stefan li Rous

The previous discussion was about sieves and sifting flour in which the
following message was sent:

The discussion on baking, ovens and bread asked about period
sifters/sieves.  I don't know what anyone else was using, but I can tell
you what the Vikings used (and in fact, Swedes in the countryside still use
even today)... they used a round, cup-shaped sieve made by naalbinding,
utilizing horsehair fiber.  Such sieves were used for sifting flour, and
for straining milk.  Milk straining is how most seem to be used in the
present day, but archaeological examples have been found with ground
grain trapped in the fibers.

::GUNNORA::

The horsehair sieves probably would not stand up to abuse that would be
placed on a strainer or collander.

Bear

Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 10:31:32 -0600 (CST)
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming)
Subject: SC - Strainers and Sieves

Greetings!  What an excellent idea for topics!  As for strainers, I
have found references to sifting things through "lawn" and "linen".
This is particularly true of sugar.  The chipped-off crystals from the
cone would be ground in a mortar and then sifted and re-sifted through
successively-fine weaves of cloth, the grains that remained behind
being re-ground.

Now, the dratted part of finding a source is, that when I find it, I
haven't developed a uniform way of marking the location so that the
_next_ time the question comes up, I'm as stuck as I was the first
time.

Alys Katharine

Date: Sat, 27 May 2000 12:54:12 +0200
From: "Cindy M. Renfrow" <cindy at thousandeggs.com>
Subject: SC - strainers

Hi!  A long while back I put up a quick page of info on strainers with
pictures.  I took it down for lack of space, but the nice folks in Ostgardr
put it up on their site.

http://www.ostgardr.org/cooking/strainers/

BTW,  horseHAIR, not horsetails (Equisetum) was used for strainers, as in
'pass it through a hair sieve '.

Cindy Renfrow

Date: Mon, 29 May 2000 23:05:56 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - "throrow a straynour" - A query about horsetail

Strainers made of horsehair are occasionally available in finer cooking shops 
even today. However, I doubt they would stand up to the process needed to 
whip egg whites. Other strainers I seen pictured were low sided pans with 
holes in the bottom and at least one Roman source that showed a metal 
strainer which closely resembles today's rounded strainer with holes. I have 
not seen pictures of wire strainers though. :-(

Ras

Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 01:32:42 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - "throrow a straynour" - A query about horsetail

stefan at texas.net writes:
<< So why would you want such an item today? It would seem like a strainer of
 that style made with monofilament line or some other polymer would be
 stronger and less effected by humidity than horsehair.>>

Because it is a superior product. When cleaned and stored properly it 
literally lasts for years. The horsehair have scales which polymers do not 
allowing much finer material to be removed from the liquid poured through 
them. 
 
 > Other strainers I seen pictured were low sided pans with 
 > holes in the bottom and at least one Roman source that showed a metal 
 > strainer which closely resembles today's rounded strainer with holes.
 
 <<Although, I used to call such items "strainers" isn't the better term
 for these "colanders" or are colanders something else? >>

In SCA period the term colander was used as early as the 14th century CE and 
was derived from the Latin word colare (to sieve).

Sieve, colander and strainer are used interchangeably by a large number of 
people including myself. 

Technically, a modern colander is a perforated utensil used for washing or 
draining food. 

The word sieve is derived from the Old English word sife which is related to 
the Old High German sib (sieve) and appeared in the 12th century CE. Today 
the word is used for "a device with meshes or perforations through which 
finer particles of a mixture (as of ashes, flour, or sand) of various sizes 
may be passed to separate them from coarser ones, through which the liquid 
may be drained from liquid-containing material, or through which soft 
materials may be forced for reduction to fine particles."

Strainer has its origins in the 14th Century CE. The modern usage of the term 
is for "a device (as a sieve) to retain solid pieces while a liquid passes 
through."

Ras

Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 03:12:30 EDT
From: allilyn at juno.com
Subject: SC - RMorrisson at aol.com: Re:  horse tail strainers

I asked a friend who knows a lot about netting and weaving, etc. if she
thought our horse tail strainers might be netted, like her period
hairnets.  Here's the answer.

Regards,
Allison,     allilyn at juno.com

- --------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: RMorrisson at aol.com
To: allilyn at juno.com
Subject: Re:  horse tail strainers
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 09:48:19 EDT

Greetings from Myfanwy!
I doubt that was what was used, since the finest netting I've seen is 
approximately 1/8" to 3/16" (and is probably made by the drawn thread method, 
rather than by using a shuttle, although I couldn't be sure -- it was in a 
case of mostly lace in the Gardner Museum in Boston, where nothing is 
labeled).  Using a 1/8" dowel as a mesh stick gets you a mesh that's about 
1/4" -- that's about the size of the hairnets in _Textiles and Clothing_,

which would not be nearly fine enough.  I suspect that it's more likely
that either a loosely woven fabric (think modern-day cheesecloth) or a 
basket-woven type of arrangement was used, though I have no evidence (we
were just at Old Sturbridge Village on Wednesday, where I think I have seen
that type of strainer).

I have never worked with horsehair, so I can't tell you how strong it would 
be.  (I'm talking real horsehair, not the stuff that's called "horsehair 
braid" that you find in fabric stores and millinary supply places).  You 
might have better luck talking to some of the equestrian folks, since I
know that horses' manes and tails are often braided for show.

Sorry I can't be off more help.

Lady Myfanwy ferch Rhiannon
mka Ruth Morrisson
RMorrisson at aol.com
- --------- End forwarded message ----------

From: "a5foil" <a5foil at ix.netcom.com>
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] hair sieve
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 18:59:12 -0400

A hair sieve is used in the mead recipe in "Das buoch von guoter spise". I
don't have my copy at hand, but I'm sure someone can come up with the
German.

The (hair) sieve is used in the various Catalan books, from which the
Castillian translation of Nola draws. I'll get you references.

Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 17:41:25 -0700
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: James Prescott <prescotj at telusplanet.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] hair sieve

At 19:58 +0000 2001-06-07, Olwen the Odd wrote:
> I ran across "hair sieve" in a recipe out of Robert de Nola, Libro de Coxina
> (Spanish 1525) for Poluora De Duque--Duke's Powder and wondering what a hair
> sieve was I went into my search engine and among other things came up with
> this from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook.  BYW Cindy is hair sieve in the
> glossery?   Olwen

D. Hartley, _Lost Country Life_, Pantheon (New York 1979) page 253
and 254 has:

"Sieves were made of long white [horse] tail-hairs, sewn over
parchment, stretched and secured by hoops of bent wood, tension
being obtained by expanding the hoops slightly after setting
the hairs."

"Sieves made of the horse hair were called _tamise_: we keep
the word today in the 'tammy cloth' used by cooks for straining
jellies, and so on."

She gives no dates or sources for these usages.

The OED does not give an English citation for 'tamis' that involves
hair, though the etymology includes "a. F. _tamis_ ... a sieve (of
wire, silk, hair, etc. (12th c. in Littr=E9)".

The OED under 'strainer' has a 1707 citation reading "Pour it ...
into a Strainer of fine thin Linen, or of twisted Hair".

  Interesting digression: a 1533 citation reads "Item a strayner of
  golde for orenges".

The OED does not appear to have any citation under 'sieve' that
involves hair.

The OED has 'hair-sieve' and defines it as "A sieve with the
bottom made of hair finely woven; usually for straining liquid"
and gives citations from 1100, 1420 (_Liber Cocorum_), 1530,
1769, and 1894,

A. Rey, _Dictionnaire historique de la langue fran=E7aise_, Le Robert
(Paris 1992) has no mention of hair under 'tamis' or '=E9tamine'.

Thorvald

From: rcmann4 at earthlink.net
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 22:50:49 -0400
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] hair sieve

On 7 Jun 01,, Olwen the Odd wrote:
> I ran across "hair sieve" in a recipe out of Robert de Nola, Libro de Coxina
> (Spanish 1525) for Poluora De Duque--Duke's Powder and wondering what a hair
> sieve was I went into my search engine and among other things came up with
> this from the Fanny Farmer Cookbook.  BYW Cindy is hair sieve in the
> glossery?   Olwen

The Spanish word is "cedazo".  It is defined as a hoop with a
cloth/fabric/woven stuff covering one side.  The RAE says that the
word used to be "cerdazo", because it was originally made with
"cerdas" (bristles, especially hog's bristles).

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)

Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:34:59 -0400
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] P: sieves
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>>>
Ok, when a period recipe says to strain something, what sort of a strainer
do you use-- cloth, wire sieve, metal sieve with holes? Do you use
different strainers for different recipes? If so, how do you choose?
Obviously some things are meant to be strained through cloth because it
says so in the recipe. But what about sauces? I've been experimenting with
using metal and wire sieves and wondering which are closest to the period
intent.

-- Pani Jadwiga
<<<

Look at Cindy's page of medieval implements. a couple of the items there are
quite obviously seives, made of horsehair, as I recall. I figure that our
modern metal sieves make an adequate substitute- after all, you can get them
in assorted screen sizes. I imaging Medieval cooks had their assortment,
too.

Phlip

Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 16:48:18 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] P: sieves
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On 11 Jul 2003, at 16:23, jenne at fiedlerfamily.net wrote:
>>>
Ok, when a period recipe says to strain something, what sort of a strainer
do you use-- cloth, wire sieve, metal sieve with holes? Do you use
different strainers for different recipes? 
<<<

Yes, I do.  My impression from reading period recipes is that they had sieves 
and strainers of different sizes.

>If so, how do you choose?

I try to judge from the recipe how finely the food is to be strained.  De Nola 
mentions sieves of silk and horsehair, and sometimes specifies a "fine sieve".

>>>
Obviously some things are meant to be strained through cloth because it
says so in the recipe. But what about sauces? I've been experimenting with
using metal and wire sieves and wondering which are closest to the period
intent.
<<<

I suspect the wire sieves may approximate horsehair sieves.  By "metal 
sieves" do you mean something like a colander that one drains pasta in?  
There's an illustration of such a thing in Scappi:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food-art/strainers.gif

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika   jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom

Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 11:25:02 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] P: sieves
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>>>
Ok, when a period recipe says to strain something, what sort of a strainer
do you use-- cloth, wire sieve, metal sieve with holes? Do you use
different strainers for different recipes? If so, how do you choose?
Obviously some things are meant to be strained through cloth because it
says so in the recipe. But what about sauces? I've been experimenting with
using metal and wire sieves and wondering which are closest to the period
intent.
<<<

_Du Fait de Cuisine_ (1420) had, as part of the supply list for the 
giant feast described, 100 ells of cloth for straining.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook

Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 22:36:13 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions about de Nola
To: "SCA Cooks' List" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

On 16 Nov 2003, at 15:04, Sue Clemenger wrote:
> I'm having a pleasant Sunday afternoon, reading de Nola on the
> Florilegium (I'm trolling for ideas for a feast bid), and have had my
> curiosity prickled by a couple of things.

> 2.  A number of the sauces and pottages are strained through a woolen
> cloth.  Would this more likely have been a coarse cloth, allowing small
> particles of the almonds or chicken or whatever to pass through, or a
> finer quality, designed to make everything puree-ish?

I'm going to give you one of my long-winded answers.  :-)

The Spanish word is estameÒa.  The English term is tamis-cloth or tammy-cloth.  
The RAE dictionary describes it as being woven from fine, twisted strands of wool.  Modern definitions of tamis say that it is made of worsted wool.  (Worsted: Firm-textured, compactly twisted woolen yarn made from long-staple fibers.)

One of the recipes that mentions the woolen cloth is #68 (pottage of fat made with milk).  It says (regarding almond milk) "cast half of the milk into it and strain it with your woolen cloth, or with a horsehair sieve, or with a clean linen cloth".  

>From these various bits of information, I'd guess that the woolen cloth should be about the equivalent of a fine wire sieve (which is what I use for straining almond milk).  I don't recall any recipes in de Nola containing chicken or anything really solid being strained through wool.  There are some sauces containing ground liver blended with broth -- those I would assume to be a rather liquid puree, and the cloth would catch any bits of liver that were not properly pureed.

> Maire

Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 06:45:32 -0700
From: Sue Clemenger <mooncat at in-tch.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions about de Nola
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Re: use of wool and linen (and I hope I'm remembering *this* right!). 
ISTR reading that linen is stronger when wet, but that wool is less
likely to be damaged by acidic stuff. Perhaps (without going back and
looking at the recipes) the woolen cloths are specified for some reason
like that, instead of just using "a good cloth."
Hmmm....I think I'll just *have* to go back and look!
--maire

Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 23:56:50 -0500
From: "Kirsten Houseknecht" <kirsten at fabricdragon.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions about de Nola
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> > Could it be preferred because it's better for fire safety in the
> > kitchen?
> Hmm. I know that natural fabrics are preferred over synthetics around
> fires (from personal experience, even) but I've never heard if there is
> much difference in flammability between cotton, linen and wool. Anyone?
> Stefan

1. in many areas wool was MUCH cheaper.
2. wool can also be felted, which makes a very "fine" strainer indeed.
3. wool can be spun, and if neccesary felted, by ANYONE, but linen requires
some skill and a LOT of preparedness. thus wool is available for a wider and
poorer population, but there is also likely to be more "poor quality" fabric
around in wool....... and you wouldnt be using your first quality fabric for
kitchen use.....
Kirsten Houseknecht
Fabric Dragon
www.fabricdragon.com
Philadelphia, PA     USA

Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 08:38:42 -0600 (CST)
From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Questions about de Nola
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

In my experience, it's the other way 'round--wool will absorb a lot more 
liquid than will linen. Especially rainwater, but I digress.

And to answer Stefan about flammability, if you don't keep the flame on 
the wool, it just smolders. Linen will burn without help once it's 
actually on fire. Unless it's wet.

Margaret

> Also, linen also absorbs a *lot* of liquid, which might be undesirable 
> depending on what you're straining.  And, in the course of absorbing 
> that water, it swells somewhat changing the fineness of the mesh.
> 
> -Magdalena
> 
> Kirsten Houseknecht wrote:
> >1. in many areas wool was MUCH cheaper.
> >2. wool can also be felted, which makes a very "fine" strainer indeed.
> >3. wool can be spun, and if neccesary felted, by ANYONE, but linen requires
> >some skill and a LOT of preparedness. thus wool is available for a wider and
> >poorer population, but there is also likely to be more "poor quality" fabric
> >around in wool....... and you wouldnt be using your first quality fabric for
> >kitchen use.....

<the end>

Edited by Mark S. Harris	strainers-msg