Box Grater > Food Processor
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I post a picture and just a few words.
In terms of actual shredding time, a food processor is faster.
But when you factor in the time it takes to haul the processor out of the cabinet, set it up, and then wash it, I feel like my box grater is faster overall.
I suppose this would change if I had to shred pounds and pounds of cheese, but for an 8-ounce block, I opt for the box grater every time.
Do you feel the same, or are you a food processor fan?
_____________________
P.S. I found my grater at Goodwill but Cook's Illustrated highly recommends this Rosle Stainless Steel Coarse Grater
. Or if you want a box style like mine, they recommend this Cuisipro 4-Sided Boxed Grater
. They strongly feel that the Rosle one is the best grater out there, though. And at $28, it's way cheaper than a food processor!
P.P.S. I do love my food processor for some things, like making strawberry banana ice cream or slicing for scalloped potatoes. But for grating cheese, it's not my favorite.
Your box grater seems to be the IKEA one: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/66916200/. I have this one as well!
Oh, I think you're right! And $3.99 is quite a bargain.
I have the The IKEA Oval Shedder w-Plastic lid & 2-Sizes of Shredding options LOVE IT ! as I buy Bulk 2-lb cheese blocks & shred 8oz a week
Shredding potatoes for latkes and juicing oranges and lemons. Food processor wins every time in our house!
Yeah, I'm very much a fan of my food processor. I even use it to sift dry ingredients like flour, leavening, salt etc. before adding them to a recipe. Yeah, I'd rather wash a food processor than sift flour.
Also, everything except the blade goes in the dishwasher so it's not like it takes that much time.
The problem here is that with six people, the dishwasher gets a little too full and so then we end up having to hand wash some stuff (Rather than let it sit out while the dishwasher finishes running).
Again, I'm lazy. I just wait for the next load.
Plus, everyone keeps telling me that kids are sources of free labor. 😉
LoL
I don't have a food processor, but do have the grater/slicer attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. If I don't have a lot to shred, I definitely use my box grater!
Another vote for the food processor from me if I am shredding cheese, but I confess to usually buying the pre-shredded bags!
Putting cheese in a food processor is practically evil. The mess it makes! My solution is to buy grated cheese - sales and/or coupons make this about the same price as block cheese at my stores.
Question for those who shred veggies in an FP: When I try to shred hard veggies (carrots, potatoes) in my Breville, I get long chunks of veggie stuck on top of the shredder disk. Sometimes as much as half the carrot gets stuck that way. How do you avoid that problem?
Especially if the cheese is at all soft. Mozzarella does not do well in my food processor!
Apparently one should place mozzarella (or maybe any cheese to be shredded) in the freezer for about 20 minutes and then it won't be so soft and shred much better... the trick is to remember in advance... and not to leave it too long, either!
Oh, so true. I would be quite prone to leaving it in there too long. I always think, "Of course I'll remember ______" and nine times out of ten, I don't until it's too late!
Set a timer, I have to set a timer for practically everything or else I forget! I buy the 2lb blocks of cheesr at Costco and shred it with my food processor and place it in ziplock bags (1 cup per bag). Still buy the cheese, just haven't shredded it like that in awhile, I agree it is messy, but can be worth it (with the freezer idea).
I eat that piece that gets stuck. So far I havent complained 😉
That might work for large potatoes but that would double the number of carrots I need to make Morning Glory Muffins.
For one small block of cheese, the hand grater. For big amounts, the food processor. Has to be worth the setting up and the washing!
I will note that my food processor makes longer shreds that just look a little weird. So I really prefer the hand grater for cheese.
I buy the pre shredded cheese (even though my friends tell me it has small amounts of cardboard!), I also use my food processor for salsa, smashing graham crackers for recipes, my homemade spiced tea (Tang, tea, sugar, cinnamon and cloves), etc. I don't even own a box grater, too many memories of bloody knuckles as a kid........I am scarred for life, literally. 😉
I feel the same way about chopping nuts! If I just need a cup or so the chefs knife is easiest.
I don't have a food processer, but use my blender for many of the same tasks. For veggies such as carrots, onions, etc. that might be a little more difficult, I put some water in with them, then shred, dice - whatever - and then drain. Works for me. Oh and the box grater works fine for cheese whenever I don't have the pre-shredded kind!
As I get better with knife skills, I wonder why I even have a food processor anymore. It seldom makes it out of the cabinet. Like you, I can be done with the box grater in less than 5 minutes. It would take me that long to dig out the food processor.
I have enough counter space that my food processor gets to live on the counter, and yet I still don't use it that much. I almost always use my box grater for shredding cheese or carrots. I do love using the food processor for things like salsa, hummus, and scalloped potatoes though.
For cheese, yes--box grater all the way. If I'm shredding more than one carrot, potato, or other produce, I really prefer my food processor.
I don't mind cleaning my food processor after Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookies. 🙂
We rarely eat shredded cheese, and when we do it's hardly any, so the box grater works fine.
I always forget that I can shred things in my food processor, so I use my box grater.
I bought my grater at Ikea, its round-ish and came with a trap on the bottom and a micro plane on top. I never use those two pieces but it has served me well.
Some stuff is okay to get cheap but really, one of my greatest investments, was a can opener from Amazon that was $20. It really just makes opening cans easier and I would say less dangerous.
Anyhow. Yes, I heart my food processor as well, lol.
I'm with you - I go for the grater rather than the food processor for cheese grating every time because of the ease of clean-up. We have a hard and fast rule in our house though that you must rinse the grater IMMEDIATELY after grating cheese - otherwise, the cheese hardens on the grater and it takes some serious scrubbing to clean. 🙂
I hate cleaning the fp after cheese so it's the box grater most of the time. But cauliflower always gets done in the fp.
Totally on board. A food processor is so much work to set up and to clean that it infuriates me. I'd rather just use a grater, or even a knife. I feel the same way about the mandoline, but even more so, because the odds of somebody slicing themselves while using or washing the mandoline are pretty damn close to 100%.
What I don't understand is, why are food processors so horribly designed? Couldn't they make a food processor bowl that didn't have corners, so it was easy to wipe out? Get rid of the complicated latch system and just give them a lid like a blender?
I have this feeling about most household gadgets. Why don't stoves just have a slow-cooker setting? Why doesn't my oven go down to 200 degrees and work as a dehydrator? Why isn't there just a "household motor" with a transmission and attachments so I don't need to mess with a mixer, blender, food processor, etc?
Well, Sadie, I'm with you on that, except that my oven does double as a food dehydrator -- it goes down to 100 deg. and came with a dehydrator rack that is a mesh rack.
I requested and received a Cuisinart processor/blender that use the same motor base, so that much has been invented at least. Do they still make it? Mine is several years old. I find I use the blender much more than the processor. Processors are so time consuming to clean, and my husband broke the latch on the lid, so I have to hold it down while I'm using it. And yes, for small amounts, no way am I using anything but my box grater.
amen!
I hv the IKEA Oval shredder & LoVe it. I don't own a food Processor.
The Gal above that has memories of Bloody Knuckles.... Reminded me of a Story
My Sister & her coworkers also women like to play Tricks on New Workers.
So they were all going to hv a Potluck party & they asked the New Gal to bring Avacado. So she called my Sister ( of course it would be my sister lol ) she asked my sister what to I do w- the Big hard thing in the Middle ? My sister told her "Oh U Grate it, but put it in a separate container"
Anyways they had their potluck & new gal had a scratched up knuckle & was very proud of her Grated Pit. 🙂 they all had a good laugh
The new gal was from Rhode Island & she said they don't have Avacados there or at least not back in the 90's
Sorry for the Ramble but I thought it was Funny.
& thinking of how many times I scraped a knuckle or two 🙁
We have both. My husband uses the food processor weekly to prepare veggies for his daily salads. I barely ever use it, I hate cleaning the thing. I'm with you about the box grater!
It depends upon the TYPE of cheese. Twice a year, at the Italian import store, we buy a wheel with Uncle Sal, my mother-in-law, brother-in-law, splitting it. It's a hard cheese, typically Parmesan or Romano, which is VERY difficult to work with. I used to hand-grate it, setting myself up in front of the television with a movie, but, after awhile, my hands HURT, so when I got a mini-food processor, it made life easier! Now, I use the food processor and grate maybe five medium baggies full at a time, then freeze for later use on pizza and pasta.
My choice is . . . Neither! We keep our food processor in the garage now because we have one of those Ninja Pro behemoths that takes up a lot of counter real estate. I only haul out the food processor when we need it's particular talents like thinly slicing cabbage for cole slaw or sauerkraut or grating mountains of potatoes for potato pancakes.
For everyday tasks like grating cheese, I just throw it in the bowl of the Ninja. It doesn't exactly "grate" but it breaks the cheese into sufficiently small bits just like grating.
Box graters and I don't get along. As my husband says, "we don't need extra protein" in our food. That is, extra protein in the form of blood and skin! (Yes, I'm a klutz!).
This whole conversation is fascinating to me; I don't know if it is a North American thing, but I'm from Europe and would never have considered "shredding" cheese in a food processor, nor have I ever met anyone who does.
We grate cheese with a cheese grater all the time; there are different kinds if you frequently use harder cheeses (these graters also work well for zests and chocolate).
I usea potato peeler to shread hard cheeses.. Small and safe.
I use my food processor when making salsa, cole slaw, shredding zucchini, slicing or shredding potatoes. I use the cheese grater for cheese. Another thing I use my processor for is making pie crust or pizza crust! First read about doing pizza crust in the Tightwad Gazette. It works very well! Pie crust also is very fast that way! To clean it I fill it partly with water, squirt in a touch of Dawn and let it whirl! Easy clean-up!
I made the same realization about 6 months ago! I was actually buying shredded cheese because I hated dragging out the food processor every time. I find that I not only spend less time using my box grater, but I actually save a little money and the cheese tastes and melts better too.
I use a flat grater for cheese when needed. Have never owned a food processor even though I cook from scratch. Just never cared to deal with all the pieces.
I have this ikea grater. It comes with a lid!! I love it so much. I bought one for each of my sisters. It is so much easier on my hands grating horizontal. It also seems faster. It is nice to grate a lot, snap the lid on, and use it during the week.
http://m.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/art/50153180/
I love love love love it!! It is one of my favorite things to use in my kitchen (right behind my KitchenAid and atk recommended chef knife - neither of which grate cheese well).
I don't have a food processor (although I'd like one!), so I can't comment on that part, but I must admit to not understanding the appeal of a box grater. Doesn't the cheese just get all smushed up and stuck inside the box part? I've always had a flat grater that can be laid across a bowl.