Make Your Box Grater Easier To Clean With One Easy Trick
Box graters are something many folks avoid using, thanks to how difficult they can be to clean. And, honestly, we get it. With all those tiny holes and crevices, box graters can be a nightmare to wash, and the process can leave you with scuffed-up hands if you're not careful. Thankfully, cleaning your box grater doesn't have to be a challenge; you just have to know how to prep it first.
Whether you're using your box grater to grate cheese, de-stem fresh herbs in a flash, or employing any of the other creative ways a grater can be used, the key to making it easier to clean is cooking spray. By applying a light coating of cooking spray to the outside and inside of your box grater, you can prevent most of what you're grating from getting stuck onto it, making the whole thing easier to clean. While it's likely that a small amount of sticky ingredients like cheese may still cling onto the grater, it's going to be much less than what will be left on an unsprayed one. Moreover, the cleaning process afterward will be smoother.
Now, you don't want to go overboard when coating your cheese grater; instead, aim for just a thin layer of spray. You can always add more if things start sticking while you're grating. If you don't have cooking spray handy, you can apply a light layer of neutral oil, like canola, to the grater with a basting brush. This will keep food from sticking without adding unwanted flavors.
Other ways to make a box grater easier to use and clean
While applying cooking spray to your box grater can make things easier, there are some other tips you can employ to make using and cleaning your grater a lot more painless. For instance, if you're grating soft or semi-hard cheeses, you can partially freeze them for easier grating. Thirty minutes in the freezer should do it. You don't want to freeze the cheese solid because this will make it way too hard to grate. When cheese is less soft and mushy, it's less likely to get stuck in the holes while grating, making clean-up much easier.
Similarly, how you hold the box grater plays a huge role in how easy it is to use. Consider placing the grater on its side and holding the handle towards your body while grating the food away from you. Not only will this allow you to grate food without scratching your knuckles, but this will also make the process much less strenuous and faster, so the cheese has less time to melt and gunk up the grater holes. Plus, everything will be collected in the grater for faster cleanup overall!
Additionally, you can wear cut-resistant gloves, like NoCry's machine-washable cut-resistant gloves, to prevent accidents and give you a slightly better grip while grating. Keep in mind that the sharper a grater is, the safer and easier it will be to use. Sharp graters are the key to grating messy foods like cheese quickly and without them mushing everywhere. When a grater is dull, you'll have to use more force to grate food, leading to chunks potentially building up in the holes, making cleanup a pain.