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?

I occasionally buy grated cheese if I'm not eating it raw and just using it in a cheese sauce or something. I do prefer to grate my own though.
I buy preprepared veg such as mixed field veg, frozen Mediterranean veg, sliced peppers and diced onions as well as fresh ready made mash simply because it's easier. I'm a very lazy cook. I also find I waste less because I use what I need and put the rest back in the freezer for another day; before I found out about frozen diced onions I can't tell you how many times I forgot about the other half of the onion until it'd gone off and needed chucking out.

I buy it for cheese sauce. Fresh cream, grated cheese, mustard. The potato starch thickens the sauce.. Job done in 2 minutes.

But I use blocks for everything else, as IMO, it’s not nice unless cooked in a dish properly (not just grilled) and I’d never eat it uncooked.

I never buy any veg etc pre chopped as they lose nutrients and IMO don’t taste as good. But if you’re disabled, ill or would otherwise just not eat veg, it’s a damn sight better than not having any veg at all.

Everything has it’s place

There is evidence in every single supermarket you care to enter Cherrycoke. So much is preprepared and ready made. The supermarkets use the cheapest ingredients they can get their hands on, add fat, sugar and salt to make it taste appealing and sell it with a huge mark up. I honestly thought everybody knew this

why grate anyway?

a slice or small block will melt just as well in sauce.

I buy it regularly for sprinkling on soup/salads if it's a lazy meal when I've been at work really late.

However if it's for eating in something nice, or with crackers, bring on the decent stuff. Lancashire bomb or CB stilton - I love that sort of thing. I could bloody marry them if it weren't for pesky DP and DD!!

You don't need to grate mozzarella for lasagne or pizza. Tearing it into small pieces works just as well.

But I must admit I didn't know about the additives. Might have to rethink it now!!

Numbereightyone what exactly are you on about? You said no wonder people were in debt buying pre prepared cheese. That’s clearly ridiculous and now you’re going on again and making no sense.

I am making complete sense Cherrycoke. It isn't my fault that you don't understand it.

Ugh I wouldn't buy pre grated cheese but also wouldn't buy pre chopped veg. I'm a bit of a food snob though.

I buy pre-grated cheese and pre-prepped veg because it is just easier for me and DD.

Because I only have DD every other week (shared custody with her dad) I spend half of my time as a single person household and I was finding I was often wasting fresh food, especially the weeks I was alone because I just couldn't always eat it all or would get sick of eating the same thing all the time to use up ingredients.

So instead I started buying the pre-prepared and often frozen veg because it means I can just use the portion of the produce I need and there is zero waste. The same with cheese - I only ever use cheese as an ingredient in meals (pasta bakes etc) so the texture etc of pre-grated as opposed to block cheese is irrelevant once it is coked into a meal (especially as you can get pregrated in mixed bags so I can have a little bit of a few different cheeses without then having multiple blocks of cheese that invariably don't get used up)

Yes I understand what you’re saying.

No wonder people are in debt in this country spending money on preprepared food
Bullshit
Go into any supermarket and see pre prepared veg with added fat salt and sugar

Fuck knows where you get your prepared veg from

Grater here. It's boring and annoying but tastes better.

I grate cheese, but I've only ever used one side of the grater. I'm not adventurous enough to try any of the other sides.

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.

No! It's not as nice not even Waitrose!

Anyone else really want some cheese after reading this thread?

Only thing I hate in kitchen is grating cheese/ fingers . No no no

We grate/chop/ make our own where we can because we can't afford not to!

I actually quite enjoy grating cheese!

Here's a sains' one - it says that the potato starch is 1% and per 100g there is less than 2g carbs:

www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-british-extra-mature-grated-cheddar-250g

So it can't be a huge amount? But still. Maybe I will have to settle for crumbling Lancashire bomb into my soup when I get home. It just feels like such a waste!😭

Adding my voice to the chorus saying "pre-grated cheese is minging."

Ready meals are full of fat, sugar and salt Cherrycoke. Grated cheese, chopped veg and fruit are vastly more expensive compared to intact veg and fruit. The UK's move towards more and more processed food is not only making us all fat, it's costing us a fortune too.

Do you understand the difference between a ready meal and pre grated cheese?

I grate cheese but cba to grate parmesan. Not sure why but much prefer buying the tubs. I do like chopping and spiralizing veg, do ny portioning and prep when I buy and whack it in the freezer, although I often cook just for me and do buy pre-batoned carrots- which again get portioned and frozen, as I never seem to cut them well and don't always want a whole carrot and don't want waste.

Sliced BN squash may also have to happen. It's a bitch to cut when you're a hypermobile dyspraxic!