AIBU to wash my cheese?

I think you'll find that "starch" is anti-caking agent. If they didn't add it, when you open the cheese packet you'd find it was full of cake.

@SENcatsandfish I should have added, I have a condition that effects my joints, and for me, especially the wrists, I could easily dislocate my wrist from grating cheese

I take it EDS or similar? One of my (adult) kids has this, fun times.

Honestly though, has an electric grater never crossed your mind. An electric food processor that grates, slices and dices. That way everything for food prep is covered. They take no wrist strength at all (not the ones where you have to crank handles, but where you just pop in chute and apply absolute minimum pressure). Washing cheese because you can’t hand grate it is beyond nuts and these appliances are not mysterious items the public doesn’t know about, just look online or go to an electrical retailer and look at the shelves.

Are there other areas of your life you could be making easier also? My child has many things to make things easier and limit the chance of dislocations and injuries, extension hair scrubbers for hair washing for example. A good place to visit for ideas is arthritis sites, there are lots of online places selling things to people with arthritis to make their lives easier, and a lot of this is useful. Don’t buy from the sites, as always inflated prices but use them to get ideas and then just get the same/similar normal retail, you usually can.

My former partner used to wash his cheese with whisky, so I kicked him to the kerb.

He lingered out there, singing:

I wash my cheese with whisky,
I've done it all my life;
It makes the cheese taste frisky,
And irritates my wife.

I smell a collaboration!

That is what stops me properly losing it. Its not wilful sneering, but ignorance. The assumption that what is easy for me must be easy for everyone is fine, until it isnt.

You’ve convinced me. That’s the title 😂

I know, and I get it that people don’t think. It’s not even the people who are perplexed but express it kindly who annoy me, it’s the snarky comments implying it’s lazy: those boil my piss. 😂

Your title is a lot more Waterstones friendly than mine would be. But I think that "Why is the world full of brainless cunts?" would sell better!

Yeah it's sad but they just don't think. They have no concept how something as simple as grating cheese can be so difficult for some of us. I can imagine being one of these posters a few yrs ago. I took so much for granted.

Agree the starch on ready grated cheese really does affect the way it melts. Given your condition, OP, I think you've found a reasonable way to make things easier for you in the kitchen (though I'd encourage you to try an electric grater, ready grated cheese is generally more expensive for less good cheese!). But I don't think you are going to find many fellow cheese washers!

I often think of writing a book and calling it The Mind Bogglingly Stupid Shit People Say.

I bought one of these and the fucking faff putting it together, washing the parts and the strength needed to make it suction to the work top so it doesn’t skitter about like Bambi on ice rendered it useless and more hassle than it’s worth. I have one of these which is a bit better. I also have a son who is autistic and adores grating cheese. I recommend one of those highly. Eats a lot of the cheese in the process though 😂

www.amazon.co.uk/Cordless-Electric-Cheese-Grater-Rechargeable/dp/B0GGJ2BLLD/ref=asc_df_B0GGJ2BLLD?mcid=d14e887313993f14a0192a9888d061be&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=768982807094&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11865199206525013776&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9210454&hvtargid=pla-2504835393484&psc=1&hvocijid=11865199206525013776-B0GGJ2BLLD-&hvexpln=0&gad_source=1

Quite. Sad but true.

My son, who's disability is physically very obvious to the people he is talking to, has had this. "Oh why cant you just grate it yourself?" "For the same reason I asked that the chef cut up my food for me....." cue awkward silence from the person who asked him.

The casual ableism is alive and well in this thread. It’s a sad state of affairs when no one stops for 5 seconds to consider that it’s not easier to ‘just grate it yourself’ for a lot of us and a suggestion like this has to be made.

I hate grating cheese, no real reason why. I chuck lumps of extra mature cheddar into my Ninja twice a week on a pulse setting and keep a box of ready - grated in the fridge.

@SENcatsandfish might be worth asking @MNHQ to add an edit to your OP! Otherwise you are going to end up with a "cancel the cheque" thread of people telling you to grate it yourself!

My son has cerebal palsy so only one useful hand. He got so sick of the coating on pre grated cheese that for a while I would grate him an entire block and then we both got sick of that so he bought a multi chopper thing. Similar to the fancier one upthread.

The only thing I would say about it is that while it great for grating (haha) etc, it is an absolute bitch to wash unless you have a dishwasher.

However to answer your OP, based on your physical issues, YANBU.

I'm going to try it too, for the same reason!
Thanks Op.

Read the OP's posts & maybe offer some actually useful suggestions or scroll on by, threads are not improved by your snappy replies.

Agree about the electric grater. I would grate a whole block, or more, and then freeze it in packs. Saves washing up every time you fancy a bit of cheese. Cheese freezes really well.

Grate your own cheese

Buy a smaller but better quality block of cheese and grate it yourself.
Grated prepacked cheese could, maybe, the rest of the cutoffs in the factory.

Washing cheese.. that's a new one. Definitely go for the electric grater, I have one and it's SO. Much easier. (And cheaper than buying the cheese grated as well!)

Don't brie silly 😜