Ever wonder what gives our favorite burgers, pizza, and pasta their delicious flavors? Certainly cheese! Without it, these dishes are ordinary and uninteresting. But we need a cheese grater to shred cheese for these dishes. Cheese graters make it easier to grate, slice, or zest cheese. This product can be used to shred cheese and other things like cottage cheese, garlic, and more.
Many excellent cheese graters are available in the market; you’ll love them for various reasons, including their improved stability and versatility. The majority have several options for various shreds and grates that can also be used for other culinary tasks, like zesting citrus or slicing vegetables.
What is a Grater?
A culinary tool called a grater commonly referred to as a shredder, is used to grate food into small pieces. François Boullier created the modern grater in the 1540s, originally to grate cheese. Different grating slots of various types of graters come in various sizes, making them useful for preparing various dishes. They can also be utilized to shred various soft foods in addition to cheese and citrus peel (to generate zest).
Toasted cheese, Welsh rarebit, egg salad, and meals with cheese sauce such as macaroni and cheese and cauliflower cheese are among the frequent foods used.
How are Kitchen Graters Used?
Of course, the most typical use is for grating cheese. But there are also some other applications. To create cauliflower rice, use a kitchen grater (and then turn that cauliflower rice into cauliflower pizza crust). Citrus peels can be grated if you don’t have a zester.
Carrots can be grated and added to salads or baked into a cake for carrot cake, and other vegetables can also be grated for salads. When creating this nutritious zucchini bread or these spiced veggie cakes, I also grate zucchini.
Grate potatoes to create hash browns. When you’re not in the mood to chop, grate ginger, garlic, and onions. Fresh nutmeg can also be grated and used in cooking if you want to purchase it whole. When baking, some people also grate the butter. Learn more about the various kitchen preparation duties that a grater may assist you with.
What is the Best Grater?
Here are some of the best graters for your kitchen:
Cuisipro Surface Glide Technology 4-Sided Boxed Grater
Features:
- Cook’s Illustrated Recommended!
- Features exclusive Surface Glide Technology: a grooved grating surface that allows you to grate more with less effort
- Grooves reduce resistance, making it easier to grate food
- Grooves also elongate the length of each blade; more food is grated with each stroke
- The non-slip handle and base provide stability; the grater can easily handle large quantities of food.
- Bonus ginger grater base shreds fresh ginger root while leaving unwanted fibers behind.
- Fine for citrus zest and parmesan, coarse for cheeses and vegetables, ultra-coarse for soft cheeses, and slicer for a variety of vegetables
Features:
- The dual grater combines two popular grating surfaces in one unit: Fine for citrus zest, parmesan, cinnamon and nutmeg; Coarse for soft cheeses and vegetables
- Features exclusive Surface Glide Technology: a grooved grating surface that allows you to grate more with less effort
- Grooves reduce resistance, making it easier to grate food
- Grooves also elongate the length of each blade; more food is grated with each stroke
- Non-slip ends provide stability and safety while grating; a safety cover protects hands during use
Joseph Joseph Twist Grater
Features:
Features:
- Fantastic Results Without The Fatigue – You can perfectly shred and slice cheese and vegetables with minimal effort. Get creative and make dinner exciting again by grating, slicing and making fresh zest to take your meals to another level. Best of all, it’s dishwasher safe and backed by a Lifetime Warranty.
- Food Prep Done Fast With Our New Extra Wide Size: Shred a block of cheese in no time with this wonderful, effective, durable product. This professional version has a contoured shape that is wider than our original grater, makes grating cheese and soft foods easy, and allows for a greater holding capacity.
- Take Pride In Your Mastery Of The Culinary Arts: One simple kitchen tool that will completely improve the taste and texture of what you prepare. Skip the food processor, which is a hassle to clean and gives subpar results. Trust us, and you want this.
- Incredible Versatility With The 4-Sided Design: Consider getting rid of all the other graters and slicers you may own to make room for this. Coarse grating, Medium grating, Fine grating/Zester and even a Slicer – all in one convenient tool. Quickly prep an array of foods like cheese, potato, squash, zucchini, carrots, lemons and cucumbers. Multi-functional with a comfortable handle that gives you total control.
- Kitchen Must-Have: Sharp Stainless Steel blades get the job done quickly and result in cleanly sliced and grated food. The removable rubber bottom keeps you safer and prevents slipping and sliding on your counter, cutting board or plate. It also prevents food from escaping the bottom of the grater, so you’ll have less to clean up.
Microplane Select Series Fine Blade Cheese Grater
Features:
How to Pick the Right Grater?
Here are different kinds of grater that you can pick:
- Box Graters: Box graters have four sides and often include different blades and shred sizes. They have large surface areas that allow you to shred big batches of cheese and other ingredients. On the downside, box graters tend to be more bulky and difficult to store than their handheld counterparts. But they make up for this by eliminating the need for multiple grating tools.
- Handheld Graters: These are ideal for shredding small quantities of cheese or produce over a bowl. They are great for beginner cooks, as they’re budget-friendly and only come with one shredding size. Handheld graters may not be the best option if you’re looking to get multiple shred sizes from one grater.
- Rotary Graters: This type is best for grating hard cheese like Parmigiano-Reggiano or for grating nuts and chocolate. How do rotary graters work? A rotating blade is enclosed along with whatever you’re grating. All you have to do is turn the hand crank, and the grater moves along the surface of the cheese. Shreds enter the barrel that you can easily empty onto your food.
- Electric Graters: Electric styles often come in attachments for larger appliances like stand mixers or food processors. They’re great for shredding large quantities of cheese or produce, but they’re not necessary unless you already have one of those appliances.
- Zesters: Zesters are similar to handheld graters but have small holes for fine grating. It’s the ideal grater for zesting citrus fruits or making pastes out of ginger and garlic. Because of their flat, handheld design, they tend to be easier to use than the pinhole side of a box grater.
Conclusion
A grater is a real kitchen necessity that is frequently forgotten but is evident when absent. With various blade grades available on each side, the box grater is a flexible go-to. Handheld graters with hanging loops are great choices if you have limited storage space in your kitchen.
It only takes two or three grades. Cheese and other tough vegetables, such as carrots, work well on a coarse grater. Zesters can be used to chew through fibrous aromatics like ginger or mince garlic without a press, and they will also extract the top layer of flavorful citrus peel. Grating chilies is a brilliant method to avoid sudden chunks of heat while adding a delicate sense of heat to a meal.
Not every grater is created equal. A guarantee is a terrific sign of the brand’s confidence in its goods because the blades can deteriorate with time. Sharp notches that need little effort from you and won’t tear or shred the ingredient are what you want.