The Absolute Best Way To Grate Cheese Is Also The Safest For Your Knuckles

During our daily cooking-tips-to-make-life-easier internet peruse, we recently discovered a useful method of grating cheese that will successfully shred your cheese into smaller pieces while keeping your knuckles intact. All you need to do is lay your grater flat on your cutting board, place your block of cheese perpendicular to the grater, and go to town. 

By laying your box grater on its side, more surface area comes into contact with your grater and, therefore, you have a sturdier connection. Changing the motion of your grating movements from up and down to front to back also ensures equal pressure throughout the shredding and is easier on those biceps. The shredded cheese falls inside your box grater, which makes it transport-friendly. Just lift and tilt into your dish — no need to cart your cutting board around. You can also keep your grip higher on the block of cheese, and away from the sneaky-sharp edges of the grater, which means bye-bye bloody knuckles!

Let's face it, grating can be, well, grating to both home cooks and professionals alike. It makes sense, shredding cheese can slow down the flow of your whole cooking process. Not to mention that graters are one of those single-use appliances that just add to the dishes at the end of the day. Luckily, the internet is full of time-saving grating hacks that will ensure you stay in your cooking flow.

When it comes to cleaning your grater, we recommend using a pastry brush or a clean, kitchen-friendly toothbrush to get the stubborn pieces of cheese out of all of those holes. To make your cheese easier to grate, you can throw it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes to solidify a bit, or spray cooking oil on your grater for softer cheeses like mozzarella or pepper jack. Oh and finally, never forget to make a lot of cheesy jokes about how grate your grater skills are.