PSA: You’re Using Your Box Grater All Wrong
We all love a kitchen gadget, whether your vibe is an air fryer, pressure cooker or milk frother, there’s one out there for everyone. But all these new snazzy appliances have made us forget of the old classics, the OG’s if you will.
One such forgotten hero is the box grater, those big clunky, possibly rusty, metal things at the back of your cupboard.
This slightly over looked ‘gadget’ has graced our kitchens since the 1540’s, so it’s understandable people are starting to move on. But this old chap is more useful than you think, plus it uses no electricity! It’s easy to forget that it has four sides, meaning it can be used for way more than a cheeky cheese sarnie.
Its four-sided design can help you slice like a pro, grate cheese, zest and grind spices. But it doesn’t stop there, here is how you can get the most out of your box grater.
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The large grater: sometimes not kind to your knuckles, but so useful!
Grating your butter
Other than the obvious cheese grating, you can use this side to grate butter to make the flakiest pastry.
De-stem your herbs
By pushing the stems through the large hole and pulling it through, this neatly removes all the leaves, meaning you get the most out of your herbs.
Make homemade Panko breadcrumbs
If you have some stale bread lying around, place into a hot oven until hard and then grate. This gives you an uneven breadcrumb mix, much like the expensive panko breadcrumbs you can buy in the shops.
Make rice like pasta pieces for soups
When making pasta dough, you always end up with a small piece of dough that starts to dry. Instead of throwing it away, roll into a ball and grate. This makes small, rice like pieces of pasta that can be added to soup as it cooks in just a few minutes. (Shhh, don’t telll anyone, this is a top tip straight from Italy)
The small grating side: the one you use for parmesan
Chopping chilli
To avoid getting those spicy fingers, I like to freeze my chillies and grate them straight into…
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