Saw a chef at a diner in Austin use a coffee filter to strain homemade broth

Was grabbing breakfast last month at this little place off South Congress and watched the cook pour his stock through a standard coffee filter into a clean pot. I always used cheesecloth or a fine mesh sieve and got cloudy broth. He told me coffee filters catch the tiny bits that make it look muddy and they cost pennies compared to fancy kitchen gadgets. Tried it at home with my chicken stock last weekend and it came out crystal clear. No joke the difference was night and day plus I had a box of filters under the sink already. Anyone else got a weird kitchen tool they repurpose for something totally different?

3 comments

3 Comments

sageallen1mo ago

Right! I started using a paper coffee filter to strain my bacon grease for storage and I'll never go back. Catches all the burnt bits and it stays good way longer in the fridge.

matthewgonzalez1mo ago

I switched to a fine mesh strainer and it works just as well without wasting filters.

matthewsullivan1mo ago

Paper coffee filters seem like overkill to me honestly. I've been using an old metal strainer I got at a thrift store for years and my bacon grease lasts months in the fridge without going bad. The burnt bits thing is real but unless you're burning like half the batch, it's not going to make a huge difference. Feels like one of those kitchen hacks that solves a problem most of us don't really have.