Graters and zesters

Until the mid-1990s, the main tool for grating and zesting was the box grater. This multipurpose monster could do everything: grate large and small shreds of carrots, cheese, or potatoes. Or create finer gratings of nutmeg, dry cheese, onions, or citrus zest. Box graters were typically made from metal, often aluminum, and usually grated two things: the food and your knuckles. The problem wasn’t that the grater wasn’t sharp. It was. The problem was that it wasn’t sharp enough. When you’d grate food with it, you had to apply extra pressure on the food to allow it to grate. This usually led to a bit of slipping, and a grated knuckle.

Fast-forward to the mid-1990s, and the folks at Microplane accidentally revolutionized grating and zesting. They were making these tools for woodworkers and discovered the untapped market of shredded-knuckled cooks. With this discovery, Microplane became the standard for handheld zesters, graters, and even box graters. What they did was quite simple: they made these tools sharper and sturdier than before. This meant that cooks didn’t have to apply extra pressure on the food to move along the sharp parts of the zester and grater.

This is particularly important when zesting citrus. Just below the outer skin of lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruit lies the pith, the thin white layer that attaches to the fruit’s flesh. The pith is bitter. With a Microplane zester, you could now remove the heavily scented and flavorful outer skin of the citrus without also accidentally removing the pith. While it’s always been possible to remove zest with a traditional zester, that only did it in thin ribbons.

While Microplane isn’t the only maker of zesters and graters, its products have become the standard that all others try to meet and exceed. There are other good brands available, including OXO, Zyliss, and KitchenAid.

In addition to zesting citrus, the smaller grater is good for finely grating Parmesan cheese, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, fresh ginger, and more. A medium grater, which is shorter and wider, is good for grating ginger, carrots, chocolate, and whatever else you might want to grate. Oftentimes, if I’m making a dessert with freshly whipped cream, I’ll grate dark chocolate over the whipped cream, the entire dessert, and the plate too. This always makes for a terrific, easy, and inexpensive dessert garnish.

I do still use a box grater for its largest grating function. It’s perfect for carrots, cheese, and potatoes. Many of the zester and grater manufacturers make sharp, well-designed box graters for such tasks. But you still have to be very careful with your knuckles and pay close attention to what you’re doing. The box graters are still like a magnet to your knuckles.