AIBU to wash my cheese?

[SENcatsandfish]

I buy pre grated cheese, but it always has that starch coating on and when it melts it goes a bit funny, and the texture and what it looks like put me off. So I chuck it in a sieve, rinse it, pat it dry and then use it as I normally would.

Someone looked at me as if id grown 2 heads when I was doing this so is it not a done thing? Am I the only person washing my cheese?

So, unreasonable = what on earth are you doing?
You are being reasonable = melted starchy cheese is gross

• [Note from MNHQ: Please read OP's subsequent posts before responding, especially the very next post in which she explains that she has a condition that affects her joints, including her wrists, which can easily be dislocated by grating cheese...]

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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.

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!

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. 😂

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

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.

I smell a collaboration!

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.

@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.

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.

I do understand why you would buy ready grated cheese. My mother does it too because she has arthritis in her hands so can't grate her own. Her carers also do not have much time when they come to prepare food for her so need the convenience of it.

Washing it though? Sorry, but that's just odd and unnecessary.

I have this one, as getting the food processor out for a bit of cheese is such a faff.
amzn.eu/d/0eqxssLH

It's normally potato starch used on cheese not cornflour.

I work in the food industry, have seen the industrial starch grating processes and have used pre grated cheese but not a huge amount of times. I have never had an issue with how it melted or it being weird. I've never washed it myself but doubt you'd get rid of tall of the potato starch by washing it anyway and then you're also adding water which is much more likely to make it weird when it melts than not.

As others have suggested, due to your condition, either suck it up and use as is, or grate using something you are able to use. E.g. a food processor.

One thing I'd absolutely not do is rinse any of this cheese then store any leftover "rinsed" cheese. Then what will have happened is you'll have raised the water activity around lots of starch and protein which, if you're unfortunate and Listeria monocytogenes is present, will grow even in a fridge. Not so much of a problem if you then cook the cheese but could cross contaminate to other foods or cause severe issues if you eat it without fully cooking.

One of the things food safety professionals have to do is consider "consumer use" and "reasonably expected consumer misuse" for products as part of the HACCP plan. I can tell you now that it's never come up in any food factory I've worked in that a consumer might decide to rinse off the potato starch from grated cheese. 😬

You could get a food processor? I use mine most days.

Wow I never knew graters like these existed! What a clever invention, and I love your name by the way.

I think everyone does something or other that is odd, so as much as people haven’t heard of someone rinsing their cheese before you can bet that some people do far stranger things that even they don’t notice.

I didn’t realise why grated cheese seemed different to regular cheese or what you’d grate yourself, so I’ve learned two new things today.

Bonkers!

This type look great (grate?) but are surprisingly hard work to use, especially if you're using mature cheese. I don't think they'd be physically any more gentle on the op than using a microplane.

You can get an electric cheese grater that requires just the push of a button.

washing cheese is rank but I also don’t like the coating on grated cheese so I grate a block.

I get it, you have a refined palate and want your cheese starch free. Entirely reasonable to wash it given your needs.

What is the cheese like once washed? If, as so many posters seem to think, it causes more textural or taste problems (though I doubt that’s the case or you would’ve mentioned it), pre-sliced cheese is usually starch free and I find it superior to grated for getting an even melt. If I require a less dense cheese distribution (rare!!), it’s very easy to chop, unlike a block. But you might find opening the resealable film takes too much hand strength.

Back in the day, supermarket cheese counters used to grate cheese to order, and for free. You might get lucky and find one that still offers this service. We’d freeze ours on an open sheet before bagging, so it wouldn’t create hard clumps. But freezing it for too long caused it to pick up flavours from other foods in the freezer - yuck!

I also find cheaper bags of grated cheese - like the giant bags of value brand mild cheddar - usually contain less starch, so that eating straight out of the bag is enjoyable.

Carry on enjoying your starch free cheese, however you achieve it!

Strange 😂