It is the year 1982. You have just bought a new hand grater, but need to check if it has been professionally calibrated and checked for defects. The new grater is in fact a certified quality device, after all. But is the new grater really as good as it appears?

Well, the grater is an inexpensive but very common home tool, commonly used for simple bread making and grating vegetables. And as for cooking with it, well that’s another story.

However, the normal use of the hand grater has been very successful, especially with grated cheese, a product which in itself is a marvel of chemistry and biology. Many cooks believe that the grating technique is the best way to make certain types of cheese. It is only the perfectionist who would argue against this claim.

Yes, there are two things you need to remember if you want to grate your cheese correctly: first, you need to avoid using too hard a grater blade and secondly, you need to use the right type of cheese. Of course you can get a really cheap but bad grater blade, but who wants to take a chance like that?

Cheese Grater Hacks | MyRecipes

In the event you are trying to grate cheese with your grater, you will find that you do not need any oil for the process. They come with high quality blades made of chrome, stainless steel or anodized aluminum which prevent the formation of oils and grime when you use them.

But you don’t need soap opera watching in order to use your grater properly. Soap opera style as some may think. For a long time it was believed that those who used a lot of oils and thus, greases for example, should not be trusted for making cheese as this leads to cross-contamination.

Well, scientists soon discovered otherwise. Nowadays many graters have been manufactured that are oil free and yet just as good as those that are oil based. With a few exceptions.

A lot of good cheese is prepared this way, without oils being used in the grater at all. If you are a new cook, you may wonder what cheese you can grate. Fortunately, there are quite a few cheeses to choose from, depending on your preferences.

For instance, you can grate cheddar, mozzarella and brie. You can also grate pepper jack, plain or cheddar. The choices are endless and as such, you will be able to experiment with different combinations of cheeses to find the ones you like best. And what cheese does not like to experiment with?

Aside from all this, there are also choices for other ingredients that you can use to top your cheese. For instance, you can use butter, parmesan, nutritional yeast, bacon fat, olives, eggs, olives, and also shredded onions, tomato, and sliced pepperoni. Think about your preferences and try to find what you can use.

For the serious chef, you will be glad to know that there are even cheese graters with a temperature control feature. So whether you use it for making cheese or eating cheese, you can be sure that the temperature will be just right.