Tip: Cheese Graters

Mouli. That’s really the only name to remember. Electric graters just ‘boil’ your cheese; the other (6) hand graters I’ve tried all suffered from various shortcomings - too small, too big, awkward to hold, dull blades, impossible to clean . . . So save yourself some time and trouble; get a Mouli.

They make metal ones and they make plastic ones. I find the plastic one much gentler on my hand. My daughter (who gave me my first metal one, I think) likes the metal ones. Buy some of both; use the one you like and give the rest as gifts!



But do look around. The first metal one I bought was from a ‘Kitchen’ store. It was a ‘discount’ Kitchen store, to be sure, but I still paid nearly twice what I would have had I thought to look in the cut-out bin at the local ‘dollar’ store. The first plastic one also came from a discount kitchen outlet – about $1 less than the metal one. Later, I found plastic ones on-line as a ‘discontinued’ item. I bought their last three for about half what I paid for the first metal one. That was four years ago and I just retired my first one!

If, however, you decide to like the plastic version, you will have to make a repair. The hinge pin that holds the handles together isn’t a pin at all – just two little nubs of plastic that are guaranteed to break off after about 8 uses. But the pin idea is the solution.

Just grab your electric drill. Zoom a tiny hole through the handle where the nubs used to be, and using metal washers on each side, slip a skinny machine screw through and tighten up with a nut. Like I said, four years of twice weekly service, and what finally broke was the arm, not the pivot.