American kitchen towel. I've seen lots of interesting stuff on here, but What is it in a recipe?

Solution 1:

An American kitchen towel is indeed something like a tea towel.

It is simply a (cloth) towel used in the kitchen. These days, kitchen towels are often made of terry cloth, whereas tea towels - at least, what Americans call tea towels - are typically flat woven fabric.

In the US, kitchen towels are sometimes called dish towels, or dish cloths. This page on the Williams Sonoma website (an American kitchenware store) uses the terms interchangeably:

Refresh Your Kitchen Towels

Indulge in the satisfaction of all new kitchen towels...The well-stocked kitchen has lots of dish towels at hand throughout the room...Dish cloths make serving meals infinitely easier. Mitts or potholders keep your hands safe and cool while you reach into the oven or grab a pot off a burner, but dish towels enter the picture as vital kitchen support when things are really cooking. Use kitchen towels as extra trivets or big mats to place hot items while cooking...

https://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/homekeeping/dish-cloths-towels/ (emphasis added throughout)

On the other hand, another American kitchenware company, Sur La Table, seems to think that dish cloths are smaller than kitchen towels and they're mostly square, whereas kitchen towels are rectangular.

https://www.surlatable.com/category/TCA-257921/Kitchen+Towels+%26+Dishcloths

In any case, a kitchen towel is definitely made of cloth, not paper. If it were made of paper we would call it a paper towel.