Learning to Edit
Graters
After some experimentation attempting to replace a grater bought in the early 1990s, Signe has developed strong opinions on graters.
Do NOT buy this kind:
It is extremely awkward to hold and you will almost certainly end up with food everywhere.
As you attempt to grate something (say, cheese), the wrist holding the grater has to sit at an extremely awkward angle and that entire hand gets covered with grated food. Because the pressure of your fingers is the only thing maintaining its shape, any change in your grip causes the angle of the cutting surface to change, and the thing you're grating to shift in unpredictable directions. DO NOT BUY!
A traditional standalone boxy metal grater is more effective and offers a greater variety of cutting surfaces. This is the side we use most often, for grating cheese for Cheese Sauces and Macaroni and Cheese and grating potatoes for hash browns.
It's more difficult to store than the one you should absolutely never buy, but worth it since it provides actual grating functionality rather than the appearance of functionality. That said, Signe has never figured out what this side of the grater is for.
It's impossible to clean and ineffective at creating chocolate shavings for Dirt Cake, grating ginger for Ginger Cake, or getting the rind off of citrus fruit for Lemon Sauce I. If you want to do any of those things, you want the rasp:
In practice, you don't actually want the rasp on the standing grater, as it's very difficult to get the bits out from the back side. What you really want is a dedicated handheld rasp:
Images provided under CC-BY 4.0. Please attribute to Redfield Recipes.