Like many of us, my parents used me as slave labor to grate cheese for everything. I have no idea how many of my fingertips ended up in the cheese bowl using one of these things!
Well, the answer has arrived!
My wife bought this thing the other day.
Let me tell you, this thing is awesome!
The first time I used it, I was impressed, though I thought to myself I would need to get some suction cups to mount on the bottom - little did I realize, it HAD a whole suction base on the bottom! And it works really well! It is pretty flimsy plastic, but this is a low-torque process with this machine, the suction plate at the bottom held it rock steady, and even though it's lightweight, I don't think it's going to snap in two on the third use. I probably won't put it in the dishwasher, just to be on the safe side, but it cleans up so easily it's not a big deal to hand wash it.
I just finished grating up 3½ pounds of block cheese. Total time, about 5 minutes, more of which was getting it set up, getting a bowl that would fit under the mouth to catch the grated cheese, getting a larger container (a foil pan) to dump THAT bowl into because it filled up so danged fast, and then a bigger container (my big Tupperware meat bin) to mix it all together by hand. The grating part was a SNAP!
Finished pics.
Man, this would have taken me an HOUR to grate by hand as a kid, I'm not kidding! And I would have been a bloody mess at the end of it - I'm not sure even now I would be much different, a little faster and maybe 20% less ravaged fingertips.
And this thing cleans up pretty easy, too. Comes apart in seconds, wash out the rotary grating blade, the shroud and the 'pusher' piece, which I didn't even use after the first block. It's a Godsend, I'm telling you. Took me about 30 seconds to clean it all and set it aside to dry. There are numerous iterations of this style of grater on Amazon, but make SURE you get one that has a suction cup base on it, that's the biggest thing I can advise!
Now - block cheese isn't really any cheaper than pre-grated cheese at WalMart, about $0.25 an ounce - BUT... block shredded cheese is so much better! No powdery stuff on it to prevent clumping (potato starch? Some kind of anti-caking agent?) or whatever, sometimes that alters the taste, it does alter the texture, and I think it doesn't melt quite as well. Nothing beats freshly grated cheese from a block.
This was 3½ pounds of a couple of types of cheddar, a block of Colby-Jack, and a block of pepper jack. Mixed all together, and we have our own freshly-grated Mexican-style blend for nachos, tacos, whatever. I'm super happy with this thing.
Some pics of my last tacos the other night, just for the hell of it.
These were chikkin-bacon-ranch I threw together in about 5 minutes. In fact, I may do this again tonight, or do a chikkin-bacon-ranch cookup of some kind. We have enough bacon around here these days to bring peace to the Middle East, if they'd just TRY IT!
Well, the answer has arrived!
My wife bought this thing the other day.
Let me tell you, this thing is awesome!
The first time I used it, I was impressed, though I thought to myself I would need to get some suction cups to mount on the bottom - little did I realize, it HAD a whole suction base on the bottom! And it works really well! It is pretty flimsy plastic, but this is a low-torque process with this machine, the suction plate at the bottom held it rock steady, and even though it's lightweight, I don't think it's going to snap in two on the third use. I probably won't put it in the dishwasher, just to be on the safe side, but it cleans up so easily it's not a big deal to hand wash it.
I just finished grating up 3½ pounds of block cheese. Total time, about 5 minutes, more of which was getting it set up, getting a bowl that would fit under the mouth to catch the grated cheese, getting a larger container (a foil pan) to dump THAT bowl into because it filled up so danged fast, and then a bigger container (my big Tupperware meat bin) to mix it all together by hand. The grating part was a SNAP!
Finished pics.
Man, this would have taken me an HOUR to grate by hand as a kid, I'm not kidding! And I would have been a bloody mess at the end of it - I'm not sure even now I would be much different, a little faster and maybe 20% less ravaged fingertips.
And this thing cleans up pretty easy, too. Comes apart in seconds, wash out the rotary grating blade, the shroud and the 'pusher' piece, which I didn't even use after the first block. It's a Godsend, I'm telling you. Took me about 30 seconds to clean it all and set it aside to dry. There are numerous iterations of this style of grater on Amazon, but make SURE you get one that has a suction cup base on it, that's the biggest thing I can advise!
Now - block cheese isn't really any cheaper than pre-grated cheese at WalMart, about $0.25 an ounce - BUT... block shredded cheese is so much better! No powdery stuff on it to prevent clumping (potato starch? Some kind of anti-caking agent?) or whatever, sometimes that alters the taste, it does alter the texture, and I think it doesn't melt quite as well. Nothing beats freshly grated cheese from a block.
This was 3½ pounds of a couple of types of cheddar, a block of Colby-Jack, and a block of pepper jack. Mixed all together, and we have our own freshly-grated Mexican-style blend for nachos, tacos, whatever. I'm super happy with this thing.
Some pics of my last tacos the other night, just for the hell of it.
These were chikkin-bacon-ranch I threw together in about 5 minutes. In fact, I may do this again tonight, or do a chikkin-bacon-ranch cookup of some kind. We have enough bacon around here these days to bring peace to the Middle East, if they'd just TRY IT!
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