Who grates cheese anymore?

[gunsandbanjos]

I accidentally got into a conversation with a woman I don’t know at work today and whilst regaling us with the fact that she never chops anything and buys all veg pre chopped, she seemed aghast that anyone bothers to grate cheese and why would you when you can buy it pre grated.

Maybe because it’s covered in potato starch, expensive and not great quality?

Am I the only cheese grater left?

Grater and chopper all the way. I prefer block cheese. Pre-grated is much more expensive.

Always buy pre-grated but quality varies massively shop to shop!
From best to worst:

1. CoOp
2. Asda
3. Sainsbury's Never buy 4-6. Always seems dry and 'floury'
4. Aldi
5. Waitrose
6. M&S

It has never occurred to me to buy pre grated cheese. I don't find grating cheese a hassle. If I have a lot to do, like for a macaroni cheese or whatever, I get the kids to do it while I get on with something else.
I have eaten pre-grated cheese before...it was waxy and dry and didn't seem to melt very effectively, like little shreds of plastic. I didn't find it very appealing. To each their own though...some people find it fine and that's ok. I probably eat something they wouldn't thank anyone for too.

Who knew cheese grating would be such an expansive discussion!

Glad I’m not the only grater left in the world.

And yes the word grate is beginning to grate...

I grate so much cheese I have two graters!

I buy pregrated cheese.

I hate cheese. I hate the taste, the smell, the texture. It makes me feel a bit wibbly inside my bones wibbly IS a word right? But my kids love cheese. Seriously love it.

So if I have to make them cheesey foods I want as little contact with it as possible. Worth the extra money in my opinion. And I don't care if it tastes a bit odd thanks to the potato starch. That's the price they pay for asking me to suffer the cheese.

Before anyone yells at me for being so cruel to my kids, this is lighthearted and if I had my way our house would be a cheese free zone

If you buy the two for however much price, it's not actually more expensive.
I buy both.

@AstridWhite Yet people are still commenting on chopped veg saying how terribly lazy it is to buy it, which is quite offensive to someone who has no choice.

Some things are a given

On Mumsnet? Where ableist posts are left to shine in all their glory? They really aren't.

Ready grated cheese is rubbery and goss. I only buy it for putting on top of shep and fish pies and for making cheese sauce

I love the definition of "not lazy" being "someone who grates their own cheese"

It's achievable

Also love how people are talking about the taste of their crap supermarket cheddar as though it’s artisan

It takes approximately 90 seconds to mix the batter for yorkshires, at a fraction of the cost, and none of the packaging, of buying Aunt Bessie's. That's why I ask why

No it doesn't. You have to have the ingredients first, then there is weighing, pouring, mixing, getting the fat hot, waiting, putting them in, juggling space in the oven. It's not 90 seconds.

Look folks , if you're judging people based on whether they make yorkshite puddings or grate cheese, you are an epic git who needs to go grate themselves a life.

Chocolateteabag - I'm looking at the Lakeland chopper but finding it hard to justify when I have knives and also grating discs on my food processor which I never use as heavy to get out and haven't sussed how to fit them.

Another grater!

i buy a big block of cheese and grate it in the processor then freeze it in bags and use it in cooking straight from frozen. Still get the convenience with nicer cheese that tastes of cheese and not matter.

@mrskoala - this is probably one of the most useful things I've read on here for ages!

grating cheese broke my processor,

Simple, old style cylinder graters - pref. with a couple of different size drums - are the best and easiest. . I don't know why they're hard to find here - I found one in the first small kitchenware shop I tried in France. About the first thing I bought for a cheese addict dd when she first set up her own home.
I have a grater attachment for my trusty old Kenwood mixer, but unless I need a lot of very hard cheese, it's just not worth all the faff of getting it out and assembling it.

Everybody grates.

Take comfort in your friends.

Simple, old style cylinder graters - pref. with a couple of different size drums - are the best and easiest. . I don't know why they're hard to find here - I found one in the first small kitchenware shop I tried in France.

Oh you brilliant person. I’ve been wondering what they’re called in English!

Ours is attachable to the table and super useful for grating cheese but also other vegetables...

My DFIL bought some pre grated cheese for a meal recently - we ate it as it was there but although it was the brand I normally love, it really wasn't the same - I was looking at the packet wondering why and saw the potato starch ingredient - never again!

We grate. If it's a huge amount that needs doing I have a food processor attachment that does it for me.

I wonder how many blocks of cheese you could grate in the time it takes to read this thread?

@rosewater I get frozen BNS chunks from Tesco and it's fine - it goes in curry mainly though.. however HORROR I just went to the website to paste the link here and it is no longer there

Also, frozen veg can be much better than "fresh" anyway, depending on how long the "fresh" is sitting around

From this report: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2902223.stm

"Any vegetable will start to lose nutrients from the moment it is harvested.

However, while the freezing process can take place within hours of the vegetables being picked, it may be some time before fresh vegetables reach supermarkets in the UK.

We import many of our vegetables from other parts of Europe, or even other continents, meaning a long journey in a refrigerated container.

The association found that vegetables such as broccoli lost significant amounts of nutrients when imported "fresh", and ended up less nutritious than their frozen equivalent."

I do grate my own cheese though.

I grate, mostly because almost none of the cheeses I buy come in a grated variety.

I do buy pre-grated when I'm making a big pasta bake or something and the cheese sauce is just a base for other flavours.

Btw, be careful using a food processor. A lot say in the manuals not to do it, because it can put quite a bit of stress on the motor. Something about the way it can sort of clump together and stick to the attachment.