What's the coarse side of a grater? Coarse grating side (Have you ever found a cheese you didn't like?!) These holes produce tapered shreds that are thinner at the ends, which results in faster and more even melting of cheese than their industrially produced shredded counterparts. What's the course side of a grater?
These are one-sided paddle-style graters. While they only bring one size option to the table (unlike the four-sided box grater), they’re ideal for grating right into the bowl. They typically have large, very sharp holes, with a rubber-lined base to prevent slipping. They’re also thinner to store.
It has that modern culinary look that you associate with celebrity chefs and Michelin-star restaurants. Instead of the classic shape we’ve come to associate with a cheese grater, this one is long and thin. Plus, it’s only got two sides, so you can avoid the confusion of picking from four sides that seems to do the same thing.
How To Use All 4 Sides Of Your Box Grater. 1 Side 1: Thinly slice. Of all the four sides, this one is the most overlooked, but it’s your secret weapon for veggie prep. Try using it to slice raw ... 2 Side 2: Finely grate. 3 Side 3: Shred. 4 Side 4: The side you know (and already love) 5 How to make butter tarts.
We’ve already seen a couple of graters that have small, attachable measuring cups, but this one takes that idea a step further. It works horizontally, instead of vertically, so you lay it down on its side and the container catches everything you grate. There are a few key advantages to this design.
The box grater is one of the most handy and efficient kitchen tools, and that's because each of its four sides serves a different purpose: Two sides have holes for straightforward grating (one large and one fairly small), one side is meant for slicing (like a mandoline, but not nearly as sharp), and the last side has ...
Side 4: The side you know (and already love) This side of the box grater probably gets the most attention in your kitchen. You can use it to shred cheese, as well as veggies like potatoes if you're making any kind of savoury pancakes (or latkes). Use this side to shred tomatoes for a fresh-tasting tomato sauce.
1 rough in texture, structure, etc.; not fine.
Microplane Coarse graters produce small strands of food to use as topping on your favorite dishes or as an ingredient in many recipes. Slightly coarser than the product of a fine grater, a coarse blade grater is a versatile, efficient kitchen tool.
This side needs no introduction. The large holes on the wide side of the box grater are well-used and maybe even well-worn. Use this side to grate thick ribbons from blocks of cheese, tomatoes for sauce, and frozen butter for biscuits.
The third side has one to three sharp slicing blades that can produce slabs of cheese, vegetables, or firm fruits. This side often isn’t adjustable or as sharp as a mandoline, so don’t expect to accomplish the quick-fire, even slices that tool delivers.
It turns out, though, that a box grater can actually be one of the most versatile tools in the kitchen; all it took was finally discovering what the heck all four sides of the box grater are actually for.
The box grater is one of the most handy and efficient kitchen tools, and that's because each of its four sides serves a different purpose: Two sides have holes for straightforward grating (one large and one fairly small), one side is meant for slicing (like a mandoline, but not nearly as sharp), and the last side has tiny punched-out holes designed for zesting (or very finely grating).
Cheese, in particular, tends to cling to the box grater and will harden if left too long. To keep yours in top form, clean it immediately after each use. Wash with hot, soapy water and a brush or abrasive sponge. If you do find hardened bits of cheese, soak the grater overnight in soapy water, or try running it in the dishwasher. Most sturdy models can handle the high heat of the machine.
How to Use a Box Grater. Use the largest shredding holes for semi-hard cheese like cheddar, Monterey Jack, Gruyère, and Fontina when making tacos, quesadillas, nachos, cheese toasts, and casseroles like macaroni and cheese. (To truly up your grilled cheese or tuna melt game, try swapping out the plastic-wrapped singles with freshly grated cheddar ...
A four-sided box grater offers four ways to grate cheese—and other ingredients, too.
Finally, the side with the wide horizontal slots is designed for slicing. It's not as effective as a mandoline or sharp knife, but it works well for making quick slices of cheese (or vegetables like cucumber or potatoes). Use it to make wide shavings of hard and semi-hard cheeses-when you want to garnish a pasta dish or salad with evenly thick ...
Don't try to grate any soft cheese with a box grater. Things like fresh mozzarella, with its high water content, or goat cheese, will simply fall apart and make a mess. You're better off slicing, crumbling, or tearing these cheeses by hand. If you want to prevent cheese from sticking, very lightly spray or brush the holes with oil before grating, to make cleanup easier.
How to Use the Other 3 Sides of Your Box Grater. There are four ways to use a box grater. Give that one side a rest and learn about the other three. There’s more than one side to a box grater. We know. Shocking. The side you always use, the one that shreds cheese to make it look like it does in the package, is great, but you should be exploring.
There’s more than one side to a box grater. We know. Shocking. The side you always use, the one that shreds cheese to make it look like it does in the package, is great, but you should be exploring. And as much as we love a microplane (and totally think you should get one ), those other three sides deserve some love.
Large holes—suitable for shredding medium density cheeses as for pizza and similar tasks. Typical box grater showing large hole side (on right): Medium holes—suitable for smaller shreds, such as making potato hash browns. Might also be used in some cuisines for grating onions.
Small holes—probably intended for hard cheeses like Parmesan; or garlic and ginger, or similar. Slicing slots—intended for making sliced potatoes for gratins and similar tasks. Typical box grater showing slicing slots (left) small holes (right): In my opinion, today, there are better tools for all of these tasks.
I use it for firmer vegetables and fruits that I'm baking into breads (zucchini, carrots, apples), potatoes for hash browns, medium cheeses for firmer cheeses (when I want this texture), etc.
In my opinion, today, there are better tools for all of these tasks. Food processors, of course excel at many of them. Manual micro-plane type graters do far better for ginger, garlic, and Parmesan. Mandolins are better at slicing, as are food processors with the proper blade. I haven't used a box grater in many years because it is almost never the best tool in my kitchen for a given job.
Mandolins are better at slicing, as are food processors with the proper blade. I haven't used a box grater in many years because it is almost never the best tool in my kitchen for a given job. I use the side for slicing as much as the large grating side for shredding.
To answer in the language of the question asked: Medium holes with a cutting edge on bottom (look like large raindrops) : used for shredding. Small holes with cutting edge on bottom : used for shredding when you want it finer than the larger size. Outward protruding holes with spiky edges on all sides : used for grating.
If you own the most typical type of box graters, it has four sides. You probably routinely use only one of them — or maybe two. You might almost exclusively use it to shred cheese.
The largest shredding holes. These typically take up one of the wide sides of the grater. If you are grating cheese, this side is probably where you are going to do it most of the time. Hard (cheddar) or soft cheeses (mozzarella) are both possibilities. Freeze the cheese briefly to make it easier to grate. You can also lightly spritz the grater with cooking oil spray for smoother shredding and easier cleanup.
Finely grated Parm is also great for using in breading for chicken and eggplant, as well as a baked topping for bread.
Carrots and zucchini destined for muffins, cakes, quick breads or fritters work well. If you want onion that melts into a tomato sauce, grate it rather than chop it. Grated tomato is what you need for your Spanish Toast With Tomato (Pan con Tomate), as well as a fresh, bright sauce or salad dressing. Grated frozen butter is perfect for quickly and evenly incorporating into pie crust and biscuits.
Hand grater. These are one-sided paddle-style graters. While they only bring one size option to the table (unlike the four-sided box grater), they’re ideal for grating right into the bowl. They typically have large, very sharp holes, with a rubber-lined base to prevent slipping. They’re also thinner to store.
While you can use it to zest, you can use it for hard aged cheese like Parmesan for pasta and pizzas. This can also be used to grate ginger to add pungency to dressings and stir-fries. They have very sharp small holes and the slender size makes it easy to maneuver around round citrus or uneven shapes.
The difference between a grater and a zester 1 Zesters are exclusively used for citrus fruits to get long, thin strips of zest. They’re small with just a few round holes that you scrape along the fruit. 2 A grater, on the other hand, is multipurpose. You can zest citrus with a grater, but you can’t necessarily shred veggies with a zester. When you do zest with a grater, it’ll be the more like the consistency of grating ginger versus the sturdier strips that come from a traditional zester.
Make grating hard, dry cheeses like Parmigiano Reggiano a breeze in the rotary grater. The idea here is that instead of moving the cheese along the grater, you rotate a blade along the cheese. The pressure pushes the cheese against the grating drum using a turning crank, making for a quick and safe grating option. Each brand may vary with the size of the grated product. It’s fun to use this for garnishing pasta with extra cheese, just like fancy restaurants.
This is a lifesaver when making potatoes au gratin, slicing potatoes for french fries, or apple chips. The size can be adjusted from this to thick, and fancier mandolines have more options for shapes. It’s much less tedious than using a knife.
You can buy a dedicated spice grater (even more narrow than a rasp grater), but you can also get away with grating spices using a rasp grater or hand grater. The extremely small width prevents the user from accidentally grating fingertips for a more precise grate. Freshly grating spices like whole nutmeg, cinnamon, or star anise make a huge flavor impact in the baked good or dish.
You can use a grater to shred carrots for carrot cake or to add to sprinkle over salads. You can grate other veggies for salads as well. I also grate zucchini when making this healthy zucchini bread or these spiced veggie cakes. Make hash browns by grating potatoes.
It works horizontally, instead of vertically, so you lay it down on its side and the container catches everything you grate. There are a few key advantages to this design. Firstly, it catches all of the grated food, so there’s virtually no mess to clear up. Secondly, it gives you a decent sized measuring area despite the fact that this is a really small grater. And lastly, it means that the capacity markings are easier to read because they’re spread out. That means you can get much more accurate measurements for your recipes.
It’s a sizeable 10-inch grater that can tackle just about everything from parmesan cheese to chocolate, nuts and a whole host of fruit and vegetables. It’s essentially four different graters in one with each surface having a different use. You can use either the coarse shred, medium shred, fine shred (or zester), as well as the slicing surface. The unique convex design is not only stylish, but it enjoys a greater holding capacity, which means you can grate more foods in one session.
There’s a coarse grater perfect for apples, cabbages and potatoes. A medium grater which is excellent preparing savings of cheese and chocolate. A slicer that can be used on zucchini and cucumber plus a separate julienne slicer perfect for when you need to make uniform veggie strips.
If you are looking for something that you can grate, slice, julienne and also collect and store your produce in, then take a look at this OXO Good Grips complete grate and slice set. It comes with four separate grating surfaces, each of which is color-coded for your convenience. They can be used on their own or in conjunction with the transparent container, which also has handy measuring marks. There’s also a transparent lid which can be additionally used as a flat top for storing sliced and grated produce. The cover itself has a 2-cup capacity, so it highly practical in itself. There are non-slip feet on the container to hold your base steady while you are working.
The K Basix Cheese Grater & Shredder is a small grater that was a strong contender to be our Best Value product. It’s less than $10 and is one of the quickest and easiest ways to shred your food. It might not look like much, but it’s easily strong and sharp enough to grate anything from hard cheeses to carrots and zucchinis. That’s mainly because of the reinforced frame. It goes all the way into the handle to stop the grater from bending or breaking when you’re putting pressure on. Speaking of the grip, it’s a thick and soft rubber handle that is ergonomically designed to fit perfectly in your hand.
It has that modern culinary look that you associate with celebrity chefs and Michelin-star restaurants. Instead of the classic shape we’ve come to associate with a cheese grater, this one is long and thin. Plus, it’s only got two sides, so you can avoid the confusion of picking from four sides that seems to do the same thing. On one side, you’ve got your classic cheese grater. And on the other, there’s a citrus zester, so you can get really adventurous in the kitchen.
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