Most recipes for roasted chickpeas advise you to soak up the water on the chickpeas with paper towels. The other night, lacking a salad spinner, I soaked up the water from some spinach leaves with paper towels. Today when I heated up some leftover lasagna, I put a wet paper towel in the corner of the microwave so my lasagna would stay moist.
But do you ever notice that paper towels have a weird smell to them? Are you ever suspicious of how absorbent they are?
I guess what I’m asking is, do paper towels manufacturers put chemicals in paper towels to boost the absorbency of the cellulose? And if so, do these chemicals make them unsafe to use for food preparation?
I’ve never noticed that paper towels have an odd smell to them at all.
That said, I long ago got sick of going through paper towels so fast, and ended up buying a bunch of non-fuzzy kitchen towels sort of like these to use instead of paper towels. Yeah, I gotta wash them, but they work better, and there’s no safety issues.
I think most manufacturers bleach the paper when they make paper towels. So perhaps you’re smelling residue from that? If it’s a concern, Seventh Generation (to name one company) sells unbleached paper towels. You could get those and use them only for cooking.
Personally, though I haven’t noticed this problem. And I use paper towels in the microwave, such as when reheating naan or other flatbreads.
What kind of paper towels do you use? I ask only because I’ve DEFINITELY noticed a distinct odor when using certain brands (usually the cheaper ones…) I switched to Brawny and don’t notice any odor.
I have a related complaint. I spilled some liquid on the carpet and I went to dab it up with a sheet of Bounty. The liquid mixed with some dye on the sheet and now, instead of a slightly red stain, I have a slightly blue stain! Not helpful, Bounty. Next time I buy paper towels I’m definitely going for a completely white roll and avoiding the ones with designs printed on.
Bounty used to sell towels marked “for cooking” but I’ve not seen them for a few years. We now buy Kirkland towels from COSTCO. They are reasonably priced, large sheets,and are white with no design.
For as long as I can remember these have been called ‘doot da doots’ in my house because that’s the sound you make when you hold them to your mouth. My kids are ages 25-30 and still call them that. ������
I think someone is making light of the preposterous comments one of our fellow posters made while the Sanduscky clusterboink was being discussed…but it’s early.
I either put them in the recycling bin or use them for craft projects.
I covered a couple of them with newspaper paper mache, and then covered them with brown craft paper, to make scroll cases, for instance. A big hit with my D&D group.
