The best cheese graters
Grating is a laborious task, especially if your grater hurts your hands, breaks your cheese into big chunks or sends grated morsels flying everywhere. But for some dishes, you've just got to do it. So, when it comes to graters, what are your options?
The rotary grater
I live in horror of grating my fingers, so up until now, my preferred grater has been a rotary style, like this one from Kitchen Craft. The blade is encased in a square box where you insert the cheese. The arm of the grater then folds over and presses the cheese down onto the blade. So there’s no chance of injury - involving blood anyway.
But if you grate for long enough, though, the hand pressing the cheese down onto the blade starts to ache. Plus, if you put too much cheese in the compartment at one time, turning the rotating blade is hard work. This means you’ve got to first cut the cheese into small chunks, making it a labour intensive way to grate cheese. You could look at it as a mini workout!
There’s wastage though. It’s difficult to grate that last slither of cheese from each chunk with the rotary blade, and cheese gets stuck in all the small ridges of the metal casing, making it tough to clean.
The Cheese windmill
The Moulin a Fromage from Mastrad also keeps your fingers away from the blades. It’s a sort of rotary grater, except here the blade stays still and the cheese moves as you rotate the top. It’s compact, as all three blades slot into the lid while it’s not in use and it’s only 15cms high. It’s totally dishwasher friendly and it’s got significantly more space for cheese than a standard rotary grater. Plus, you can keep cheese in it in the fridge as it has a plastic seal that slots over the blade.
However, actually pushing down on the blade so the cheese grates while you turn is tough. It takes big biceps, which unlike Madonna, I’m not sporting. So for any large amount of cheese this would be useless. For grating parmesan on your pasta, however, it would be perfect.
The lazy grater
The Culinaire One Power Touch Grater is an electric mini-grater that works in the same way as the Mastrad Moulin a Fromage, but it does the work for you. Stock up the compartment with small chunks of cheese (you’ve got to cut these yourself), and a spring inside the mechanism presses the cheese down onto the blade. So you just place the grater on the storage container it comes with, turn it on and leave it to grate – great.
The only drawback is that it’s quite slow, and it uses AA batteries instead of mains power which could be expensive if you are grating for long. However, for things like chocolate and nuts, it’s nice to have something else to do the work for you.
The Ferrari of graters
To find a grater that means business I might have to risk my pinkies. So I went for the big guns of the grating work: Microplane.
This range of zesters, graters and knives are notoriously sharp – so much so that the box grater comes with a hard plastic protective cover. It also comes with great design. Ever noticed how metal box grater handles dig into your hands when you’re grating? Not a problem here. The handle fits snugly into the palm of your hand and a second metal bar provides a resting place for the heel of your palm.
The blades are raised up from the ground by two feet, so the cheese doesn’t get all compacted at the bottom. These feet also have rubber grips so the grater doesn’t slip. The main two faces are also very wide, so you can grate bigger chunks of cheese more quickly.
And the blades are pretty good too, and dishwasher safe. The extra coarse blade is perfect for cheddar, and removable for easier cleaning and getting the cheese out once it’s grated. The fine blade doubles up as a zester and would work with ginger and garlic – perfect for recipes like this. The ribbon blade gives curly shavings of parmesan – making easy work of the grating for Richard Corrigan’s mushroom crepe gratin - or chocolate and there’s also a slicer blade like a mini mandolin for recipes like Henry Dimbleby’s ceviche.
This grater is all singing, all dancing. It’s the best grater I’ve ever tried, but it comes at a price - £41 to be exact.
Excellence on a budget
A cheaper option, where you still get the high quality blade is the Microplane gourmet extra coarse grater. It’s half the price because it’s a handheld grater, with a handle ergonomically designed to make it comfortable to hold. It’s got metal bar above the blade with a rubber grip so you can rest the grater diagonally on a surface whilst using it, allowing you to exert more force. Plus the blades are still incredibly sharp, and just the right size to allow grating cheddar (and any other medium hard cheeses) and parmesan.
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