I’ve been tying a lot of stuff up lately. Must be that 50 Shades of Grey cultural zeitgeist thing working on me.
If you want to make all your kitchen bondage tasks (everything from trussing a beef tenderloin to draining your homemade ricotta) far easier, make yourself a DIY twine holder from a mason jar.
This is the simplest kitchen hack ever, and I highly recommend it to keep your kitchen twine clean and tangle-free.
You’ll Need:
- A spool of kitchen twine. Are we over the fancy stripy twine yet? I know I am. I use something like this.
- A mason jar with metal lid. Pick one that fits your spool of twine. I like the wide mouth half-pints for this.
- A hammer and nail. Or, if you feel fancy, maybe a drill with a narrow drill bit.
How To Do It:
Take your canning jar lid off the jar, and take it someplace you can nail it hard. (More 50 Shades of Grey double entendre. I’m so sorry, I can’t help myself.)
Punch a hole through the lid just large enough for your twine to slip through easily. You can punch the hole at the center of the lid, or off to the side. I don’t think it matters much. If you end up with sharp edges, just bash them down a bit with the hammer, or sand them smooth with some rough sandpaper.
Here’s what mine looks like:
Feed your twine through the hole in the lid from underneath. Typically these spools of thread are wound so they cleanly pull from the center of the twine ball, so look for the loose end in the middle.
That’s it! Assemble your new mason jar twine holder by screwing the lid onto the jar. See how easy?
Want To Save This On Pinterest?
Here’s a pinterest-friendly reminder on how to do this. Just click for the full-size graphic on Pinterest, then pin it onto your own DIY or Kitchen Hacks board.
1
Now that’s pin-worthy!
Barb
Thanks Barb! 🙂
Love it!
Thanks Pamina!
Nice idea.
But is anybody else getting tired of how everything is being termed a ‘hack’ these days?
ROFL. I had my husband (you know, the computer guy) look at this before I posted it. He said, “Yeah, it’s good. But I hate how everything is a “hack.” It’s great to hear feedback like this. The truth is, certain headlines seem to “work” to get people to read. But if they are irritating to the regulars, I’ll de-hack them. 🙂
Yes, I remember when a “hack” was something you did on a PDP-10. Sigh.
Love this, and will use it to keep twine and string in… Looks so organized!! However, I’ve got a confession. I’ve never actually used kitchen twine to, you know, actually cook with. I know you linked to a couple things above, but I’d love a good list or how-to or something about actual ways cooking twine is used for cooking–I’m sure there are lots of tasty recipes, I just briefly hit Google and I am not even sure what search terms to use to get some ideas! I tried “kitchen twine techniques”, and didn’t find a whole lot… So: what ARE all (or most, to shy away from 50 shades references) of the ways you use kitchen twine? 🙂
Kitchen twine is so useful! A classic is trussing chicken (though I am not a fan of this for culinary reasons, actually),or tying roasts like pork shoulder or beef tenderloin so they cook more evenly. I drain off my cheese and yogurt by making a little hobo pouch with flour sack towels and tying that to a kitchen cabinet. I use them to tie together herbs I’m drying, and to hold herbs with woody stems (thyme, rosemary, etc.) together in a bundle in soups or pots of beans or spaghetti sauce so I can just fish out all the stems at once when I’m done cooking. I cut up cotton dress shirts into cloth squares and use these to cover jars filled with kombucha or vinegar that are fermenting (these ferments like oxygen, but you don’t want fruit flies in there) and use the kitchen twine to hold the cloth on the jar firmly. I sometimes give gifts in mason jars and cover the lid with a round of old cotton fabric or burlap and use the twine to hold the decorative fabric on. (Very twee, that.) I’ve even used kitchen twine and old fabric to make those traditional Japanese-style tied egg holders to give eggs to people. (Even more twee, God help me.) Here’s a picture of what I kinda mean.
Awesome, I need to try some of those ideas! Thanks!
And now I am one word smarter since I had to look up what “twee” meant. Ha ha!
Love this! I’d actually like a super sized one for my garden twine instead. I have loads of tangled up twine in the garage…
Kitchen bondage tasks… I’m still laughing. I made one of these, it is very handy.
This is good. It might even keep my monsters, I mean children, from making off with my kitchen twine. Sigh.
Thank you.
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