Bags

Lisa Fotios / pexels.com / 2019

Bags actually do a lot of the heavy-lifting in the food world. But, they are taken for granted and never given a second thought.

They are used in all aspects from growing to transporting to storage to cooking. We use bags to sell seed in, bags to grow food in, bags to transport food to markets, bags for grocery shopping, bags to package food and bags to freeze it, bags as actual cooking tools, bags to transport meals, bags to serve in and bags to eat out of. And, we use bags to hold our food waste.

There are bags to hold food in them from all temperatures, from boiling hot to freezing cold. Some bags are meant for single use, some can be reused a few times, and others are reusable without set limits. They can be made of cloth, paper, metal or plastic.

And recently, the types of food bags we use have become a major environmental concern.

Linen Crash Jelly Bag

A linen crash jelly bag is a funnel-shaped cloth bag for straining jelly. Crash is a fabric, made from heavy, rough flax that can be woven in finer or coarser grades. It's an older term that went out after the Second World War. The word "crash"...

Oven Bags

Oven bags are heat-resistant nylon or polyester bags that are designed for foods to be put in then cooked in the oven. Fans say they keep your oven cleaner, and help anything cooked in the bags to baste itself by keeping steam in.

Pastry Bags

A pastry bag (aka "piping bag") is a bag shaped like a cone, with a small opening at the tip of the cone, and a wide opening at the other end. You put the food item that you are working with into the bag through the wide opening, then squeeze the...

Sachet Bags

A sachet bag is a small bag made out of loosely-woven cloth filled with herbs and other flavouring items. You toss a sachet bag into the soup, sauce or stew that you are cooking, then remove it at the end of cooking and discard.

Slow Cooker Liners

Slow cooker liners are "plastic" sheets used to line the insides of slow cooker crocks. They are designed to eliminate the soaking and scrubbing often required of slow cooker pots after using them.