A pastry cloth provides a handy and durable way to roll out dough for piecrusts, cookies, or pizza. Such cloths have been used for at least a century, and to many they’re essential in the kitchen, and much easier to use than marble or wooden boards. They are undoubtedly simpler to use than plastic wrap or wax or parchment paper, and since you can reuse the cloth many times, they’re an eco-friendly kitchen tool.

Most pastry cloth types have a canvas front, and a non-stick back, often some type of oilcloth. This makes them similar to durable oilcloths for covering tables. The principal benefit of this backing on pastry cloth is it means the cloth won’t slide around as you roll out dough, which is a definite improvement over using a few sheets of plastic wrap, which do tend to slide.

You’ll find pastry cloth in a variety of sizes. If you like to roll out large sheets of puff pastry or big pizzas, err toward choosing one in a size a little larger than you think you’ll need. It’s certainly a pain to run out of cloth if you haven’t achieved the thinness or size you need dough to be. Price will vary tremendously on pastry cloths. Smaller ones may cost about $6-10 US Dollars (USD) and larger ones can cost $20-30 USD.

You use the pastry cloth just as you would a board or plastic wrap. After placing the cloth on an even surface, add a little flour so the dough doesn’t adhere to the cloth. Add the dough, with perhaps a little flour on top, and roll out. If you’re rolling out circular dough, you may find it convenient to turn the cloth instead of the rolling pin to create near perfect circles.

After use, and depending upon the ingredients in the pastry or dough, you can simply dust the cloth off, and fold it up for the next use. Most times you should probably give the cloth a washing before its next use, especially if your dough contained a lot of butter or raw eggs. Most cloths are hand washable, with a little bit of dish soap. They should be hung up to dry before being stored for the next use. You can get years of use out of a gently treated pastry cloth.

Another advantage of the pastry cloth is that you can cut dough directly on it, while it provides some protection to the surface underneath it. It’s an easy space for cutting out cookies, making scones or creating ravioli with a pastry crimper. You do want to cut lightly, since the canvas side can become damaged with knife cuts. Most dough cutting tools though won’t mar the canvas.

Arguably one of the best benefits of the pastry cloth is that it can be folded into small sizes. It’s a great tool for people with crowded kitchens, especially when they don’t have room to store big wooden or marble boards. Simply keep it in your dishcloth drawer, or place it in one of your cabinets in between uses. It doesn’t take up much space and will prove wonderfully adaptable for a variety of kitchen applications.