The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Would these bags make a good couche?

BKSinAZ's picture
BKSinAZ

Would these bags make a good couche?

Just purchased one of these bags of flour because of cloth bag. I was thinking that I might  be able to use it as a couche. Anyone ever see or touch these bags of flour? What do you think?

Is there anything special about the cloth of a real couche?

drogon's picture
drogon

If it is, then it's obviously a tight enough wave to keep the flour in, so it should work OK.

I have one cotton couche and while it's lighter than ny linen ones, it works OK.

Give it  wash (mild detergent, don't use a fabric conditioner) - make sure the dye is fast and see what happens..

-Gordon

AlanG's picture
AlanG

I went to the fabric store and bought a long remnant of white cotton oxford cloth.  My neighbor is a good seamstress and she tailored the lining to fit my oval brotforms.  

jimbtv's picture
jimbtv

I make my own couches out of unbleached cotton drill. This can be found in most fabric stores and is often used for pastry cloths and ironing board covers.

I am told that reenactors use the fabric to make uniforms.

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

Traditional couches are linen, which is supposed to stick less than anything else. I made mine from a fairly stiff cotton canvas purchased from the fabric store and it works just fine! I expect the sack is made from cotton as well so it should work as long as the dye doesn't react with the moisture and other elements in wet bread dough.

yozzause's picture
yozzause

 

HI BK

I used table clothes when asked to bake at the technical college as they were on hand for the training restaurant and required very little dusting due to the very fine weave and are sufficiently large enough to fold over the dough to cover everything up and prevent skinning.

The 25Kg flour bags here are often used as tote bags and in fact there are bags being sold that are copies of the flour bags with the famous "Dingo" brand. I have been told the bags were fashioned into underwear during the war,

 

When I did my apprenticeship the flour came in 150LBS  thick hessian sacks that as an apprentice was expected to lift and tip into mixing bowls that would take 4 sacks. The sacks were also cut up to make mits for handling the bread tins and sheets coming from the oven, another apprentice's job cutting these up for the oven men. Today as there are no Hessian bags and certainly no large sacks the same style mits can be purchased made from several layers of terry towelling, the benefit of the mits it that they hang around the wrist and allow the fingers and hands to be used loading the oven and then flipped onto the palms when required to handle hot stuff.. I don't have a picture to hand at the moment but can post one if you would like. I'm afraid I wasn't able to convince the chefs to use the bakers mits and they prefer to use tea towels when taking hot  stuff from the oven, the problem being they can be damp and can either cause a steam burn or the hot trays to be dropped altogether, anyway that's another story! kind regards Derek. 

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

And it came in the same bag and now I know what I am going to do with it.  What a great idea!

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Hi Dab I presume you are referring to the good idea being a tote bag not making your own under wear!

Doc.Dough's picture
Doc.Dough

About 20 years ago I bought a few yards of hemp canvas from Dharma Trading Co and have never looked back.

It has turned out to be incredibly soft and durable and will fold 5 times gracefully. I also bought some 15 oz cotton canvas that was as stiff as a heavy canvas tarp and unusable as a couche. And I never found any linen that was a decent substitute.  So I am still using my hemp couche multiple times per week without regret.

I have gifted pieces to special people and still have some left as a reserve for when the original begins to show wear.  It gets hand washed a couple of times per year - usually after I have put a batch of sloppy ciabatta on it without adequate flour or spilled some grease or sticky stuff on it. But after washing, air drying and ironing it is as good as new.