1,612 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 77 videos

Don't throw away disposable piping bags

Nowadays, it's fairly easy to find what professionals use as piping bags, i.e. disposable or "single-use" plastic ones.

They're practical, functional and inexpensive, but disposable? That's debatable...

11 K 5/5 (21 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Equipment Cleaning Savings Pockets Sustainable development Baking

Last modified on: May 28^th 2024

For this post Comments Lasts posts Follow

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

Their use

These pouches are bought in boxes of 100, and for each use, you're supposed to fill them up, poach the contents, then throw them away, and the next time, take a new one, and so on. You'll tell me that this is a disposable principle, of course, but the real shame is that these pouches are of excellent quality and can, in practice, be reused many times.

poches neuves et usagées

In this photo, you can see a new pouch coming out of the box (red arrow) at the bottom and a second-hand pouch (green arrow) at the top.
Not much difference, you'll agree.
Of course, the used one is a bit crumpled, but it still works very well - so well, in fact, that I think it's got at least 10 years' use left in it, without exaggerating.

So don't hesitate: you can reuse a disposable piping bag many times over, simply by washing and drying it, which is both more ecological and more economical.

Let's wash them

Washing a piping bag is something that professionals don't do, or don't do much of, because their time is limited, and throwing it away is much quicker than washing it.
On the other hand, for amateurs in the kitchen, a little extra washing-up isn't a big deal: all we have to do is wash it after use, and we'll be able to reuse our piping bag the next time.
To wash it, we can proceed in the traditional way: turn the bag inside out, like a glove or a sock, then wash it in the dishwasher.

But there's a quicker way:
lavage poche étape 1

Pour a drop of washing-up liquid into the bag after use, fill it halfway with hot water and pinch the pointed side so that the water stays inside.

lavage poche étape 2

Also close the other side of the bag to lock the hot soapy water inside.

lavage poche étape 3

Shake the closed bag from right to left for a few seconds.

lavage poche étape 4

Release the pointed side to let the water out completely.

lavage poche étape 5

Rinse the pouch, then let it dry, or wipe it with a cloth if you're in a hurry.

Your (disposable) pouch is ready for use again.

In short: Don't throw your disposable pouches away, just wash them, and you'll be able to use them again and again.

Lasts posts

Season to the right level

When you need to salt something—for example, fish fillets before cooking them—you’ll naturally sprinkle them with a pinch of salt using your fingers. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this very ordinary gesture, which is done all the time in the kitchen, and yet there’s a...
October 14^th 20261,4745

How to Properly Fill a Jar

When you have a jar in your kitchen that’s almost empty—flour or almond flour, for example—you’ll probably refill it before it’s completely empty. And that’s a great way to go about it—no one wants to run out of an ingredient right in the middle of a recipe. Once you’ve...
October 2^nd 20261,0765

Serving Temperature for Wine

When it comes to serving wine, you may (like me) have a fairly simple rule of thumb: red wine at room temperature, and white, rosé, and yellow wines in the fridge until it’s time to serve them. It’s very easy to remember, but it’s a bit simplistic, and you’ll see that there’s a much...
September 23^th 20261,1605

Hot Emulsified Sauces

In French cuisine, sauces are a very important part of a recipe—not just a side dish. In fact, they’re so important that, especially since the time of Auguste Escoffier, they’ve been classified into categories. And among these categories are “hot emulsified sauces,” or lukewarm ones. ...
September 9^th 20261,5805

Hot Dishes and Cold Dishes

When plating or serving a dish—whether hot or cold—on a plate, it’s very important to make sure they’re both the right temperature; in other words: if the dish is hot, the plate should be hot, and conversely, if the dish is cold, the plate should be cold. Is this really important? Let’s...
September 2^nd 20261,3243

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other articles you might also like

The (small) miracle of béchamel sauce

Making a béchamel sauce is going to confront you with a little miracle that happens every time: You pour milk over a roux, it's very liquid, you stir over a low heat, and then all of a sudden, miracle, the sauce sets, it thickens, you've got your béchamel. Let's see what happened.
August 27^th 202411 K4

What happens to the bread when you make it?

This bread that we eat every day, and that our baker makes for us, what happens during its manufacture so that it becomes bread? I will try to answer this question, and to summarize the complex alchemy that takes place.
May 28^th 202117 K4.9

How easy is it to chop herbs?

Whenever you have fresh herbs - parsley, chervil, coriander, mint, etc. - to incorporate into a recipe, we tell you to chop them up. In this case, "chopping" means separating the leaves from the stems, keeping only the leaves, and chopping them more or less finely. It's not very complicated,...
September 12^th 202315 K5

Half milk, half cream

In a multitude of recipes, savoury or sweet, milk is used as the main ingredient, or at least as the main liquid ingredient. Milk is used instead of water, for example, because milk contains a proportion of fat, which adds roundness and softness to the recipe. This mellowness is very pleasant on...
February 27^th 202412 K5

Wipe meats and fish before cooking

When you want to cook meat or fish, there's a very simple yet very important step to take before you even start: It's to dry, or wipe, each side of the meat or fish, sometimes called "dabbing" or "sponging". But why? And how? Let me explain.
April 14^th 202411 K4.5