Grater

thumb|Box grater with a vegetable slicing surface (top) and grating surface (front) displayed A '''grater''', also referred to as a '''shredder''', is a kitchen utensil used to grate or shred foods into fine pieces. They come in several shapes and sizes, with box graters being the most common.<ref name="NYTWireCutter">{{cite web |title=The 4 Best Graters of 2025|date=December 11, 2024|url=https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-grater/ |website=The New York Times Wirecutter |access-date=March 2, 2025}}</ref> Other styles include paddles, microplane/rasp graters, and rotary drum graters.<ref name="NYTWireCutter"/><ref name="k493">{{cite book | last=Hutton | first=Elinor | title=The Encyclopedia of Kitchen Tools | publisher=Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers | date=2020 | isbn=978-0-7624-6998-7 | page=}}</ref>

==Uses==

===Food preparation=== thumb|Grated carrot Graters are commonly used to process vegetables, cheese, citrus peels (to create zest), and spices (such as ginger and nutmeg). They can also be used to grate other soft foods. Dishes whose preparation involves graters include toasted cheese, Welsh rarebit, egg salad,<ref>{{cite web |title=Use Your Cheese Grater For An Elevated Egg Salad Experience |url=https://www.tastingtable.com/1471110/use-cheese-grater-egg-salad |website=Tasting Table | date=December 18, 2023|author=Emma Segrest|access-date=March 2, 2025}}</ref> and foods containing cheese sauce such as macaroni and cheese and cauliflower cheese. Rotary graters are more efficient than other graters, due to their mechanical leverage, and are effective for processing harder foods like nuts.<ref name="NYTWireCutter"/>

Several types of graters feature different sizes of grating slots and can therefore aid in the preparation of a variety of foods.<ref name="NYTWireCutter"/>

In Slavic cuisine, graters are commonly used to grate potatoes for preparation of dishes, including draniki, bramborak or potato babka.

In tropical countries graters are also used to grate coconut meat. In the Indian subcontinent, the grater is used for preparation of a popular dessert, Gajar Ka Halwa.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gajar Ka Halwa Recipe|url=https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/gajar-ka-halwa-9423066 |website=Food Network Kitchen |access-date=March 2, 2025}}</ref>

Graters produce shreds that are thinner at the ends than the middle.{{cn|date=March 2025}} This allows the grated material to melt or cook in a different manner than the shreds of mostly uniform thickness produced by the grating blade of a food processor. Hand-grated potatoes, for example, melt together more easily in a potato pancake than food-processed potato shreds.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

===In music=== In Jamaica and Belize, coconut graters are used as a traditional musical instrument<ref>{{Cite web|url= http://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/fredericks.html|access-date=2007-07-14|title=American Rhythm and Blues Influence on Early Jamaican Musical Style|author=Brad Fredericks}}</ref> (along with drums, fife, and other instruments) in the performance of kumina, jonkanoo, brukdown, and sometimes mento.

==History== The first attested graters were made out of bronze, and also silver alloys, in the early first millennium BCE, examples of which were uncovered from burial sites in Greece and Etruscan Italy.<ref name="RosenstockEbertScheibner2021">{{cite journal|last1=Rosenstock|first1=Eva|last2=Ebert|first2=Julia|last3=Scheibner|first3=Alisa|title=Cultured Milk|journal=Current Anthropology|publisher=University of Chicago Press|volume=62|issue=S24|date=2021-10-01|issn=0011-3204|doi=10.1086/714961|pages=S256–S275|s2cid=239683334 }}</ref><ref name="Ridgway">{{cite journal|last=Ridgway|first=David|title=Nestor's Cup and the Etruscans|journal=Oxford Journal of Archaeology|publisher=Wiley|volume=16|issue=3|year=1997|publication-date=2002 |issn=0262-5253|doi=10.1111/1468-0092.00044|pages=325–344}}</ref> In line with Homer's Iliad, these were sometimes used to grate goat's cheese in the making of a type of Kykeon, a fast-breaking drink.<ref name="Ridgway"/> thumb|Early forms of a "modern" grater (by M. Agrappi and B. Scappi)|202x202px The origin of our modern graters is disputed. One of the earliest known depictions of a grater that resembles contemporary designs appeared in the Bartolomeo Scappi work, ''Opera dell'arte del cucinare,'' illustrated by Milano Agrappi, published in Venice in 1570''.''<ref>{{Cite web |title=The History of the Grater |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-history-of-the-grater-museo-del-parmigiano-reggiano/iwWRvDFTRswkIg?hl=en |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Scappi |first=Bartolomeo |title=English: Early Depictions of a "modern" grater |date=1570 |editor-last=Agrappi |editor-first=Milano |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bartolomeo_Scappi_Works_Grater.png |access-date=2025-03-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Opera Dell'arte Del Cucinare |url=https://heraldicart.org/opera-dellarte-del-cucinare/ |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=Traceable Heraldic Art |language=en-US}}</ref> However, most attribute the first "modern" cheese grater to François Boullier in 1540s France.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-03-17 |title=Really Grate: The Kathleen Thompson Hill Collection of Cheese Graters |url=https://www.cheeseprofessor.com/blog/antique-cheese-graters |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=The Cheese Professor |language=en-US}}</ref> His pewter design was intended to convert hard cheeses into something more edible.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Andrews |first1=Colman |title=The 25 Most Important Inventions In Food And Drink |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/50-most-important-inventions-food-and-drink-2011-3 |access-date=9 October 2021 |work=Business Insider}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hill |first=Kathleen Thompson |date=2011-09-03 |title=A Grate Look |url=https://culturecheesemag.com/photo-essay/a-grate-look/ |access-date=2025-03-07 |website=culture: the word on cheese |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Images== <gallery class="center" mode="packed"> File:Cheese Grater.jpg|Cheese grater Image:Zest Grater.jpg|A zester Image:Muskatreibe fcm.jpg|A nutmeg grater Image:Terka.jpg|Multiple graters Image:GingerGrater.png|Porcelain ginger or garlic grater Image:Oroshigane.Sharkskin.jpg|Sharkskin grater File:Chirava c.jpg|Traditional coconut grater design in the Indo-Pacific Image:Micro Plane.jpg|Microplane grater Image:970GrosseMoccaMuehleOttoBenzH2a.jpg|Combined electric coffee grinder and cheese grater Germany around 1930 </gallery>

==In popular culture== * Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, got the idea for the Shredder's armor from large cheese graters which he envisioned on a villainous characters' arms to be used as weapons. Originally called "Grate Man", the Shredder is known as the primary antagonist in the TMNT franchise.<ref>The Making of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles': Behind the Shells. 1991.</ref> * Wisconsin sports fans are often called cheeseheads, and some wear cheese hats. In 2013, sports fans of Chicago and Minnesota replied to their rivals by wearing cheese graters.<ref>[https://www.chicagotribune.com/2013/12/26/cheddar-shredder/ Cheddar shredder] - Chicago Tribune, 26 December 2013</ref>

==See also== * Food processor{{spaced ndash}} an appliance that sometimes has a grating blade * Spiral vegetable slicer{{spaced ndash}} food-processing machine that rotates vegetables against a blade, producing ribbons or noodles * Mandoline * Oroshigane * Surform * Tamis * Soap grater

==References== {{Cookbook}} {{Reflist}}

Category:Food preparation utensils Category:French inventions