Every kitchen needs a parmesan cheese grater and yours is no different. But picking out a cheese grater can be tricky since there are so many different types to choose from (rotary, manual, automatic, mandoline, box, etc). Today I’ll help you narrow down the different choices you have and give you an idea of how much money you can expect to pay so that you don’t spend more than you have to!
When I was growing up, we always had one of those green cans of parmesan cheese in the fridge. You know the kind I’m talking about, don’t you? I never knew there was anything else out there until much later when I came across a chunk of actual parmesan cheese in a store. I brought it home and grated it myself and was really blown away by the difference. I never went back to that green can of cheese again!
What is a parmesan cheese grater?
There really isn’t a special machine called a parmesan grater. Any grater will work. The reason why some people get confused is because Parmesan cheese is generally a much harder cheese than others and it can sometimes be difficult to grate it. But these days, just about any cheese grater you buy should be able to handle Parmesan, so really it just comes down to personal preference.
You have several distinct cheese graters to choose from, including:
- Box
- Rotary
- Manual
- Automatic or electric
A box grater is sort of like that thing that your grandmother had sitting on her countertop in her kitchen way back when. It’s that square, sort of tall stainless steel looking grater with a handle on top. This is as manual as you can get and many people like it because it’s very quick, though it is sweat powered!
A rotary grater, on the other hand can be either a manual or electric cheese grater. Basically it has a round cylinder where you put your cheese in and then rotate it either with a crank or by flipping a switch and the cylinder turns and grates the cheese.
If you do a lot of cooking in your kitchen, and you use a lot of cheese, it may be worth it to buy an automatic grater to do your grating for you, and many customers feel that way but I find that old-school chefs often just use the old manual box grater. So it’s a personal choice.
One popular brand is the Zyliss cheese grater. It seems to have the most 4 and 5 out of 5 stars product reviews online and creates great grated cheese almost every time. Expect to pay between $10 and $20 for them, which is a general price range you can expect to see across the board (up to $40 for the really fancy ones).
At the end of the day, when it comes to selecting a Parmesan Cheese Grater there are many different products and many different tools that you can use on your cheeses to get them grated just the way you like. If you use a lot of hard cheese, it may be worth it to invest in rotary cheese graters as your parmesan graters of choice. But I also really like the box ones too…. it really all comes down to what you like. Luckily, they don’t cost that much so you can pick and choose and see for yourself what you like.
