I don’t think I could go a week without using my grater. But by “using my grater,” I mean what most of us mean: using the one, coarse grating side that’s perfect for shredding Cheddar.
When I’m making a dressing or baking, the finer testing side does get some use. But the flat, wide, slicing side of my box grater has never been used ― and as for the spiky side, I won’t even touch it for fear of losing a knuckle.
If Reddit’s r/Cooking is anything to go by, it looks like I’m not alone.
Site user u/Hansekins recently posted to the forum asking “What is the fourth side of a box grater for?”
“The one that makes it impossible to hand wash the thing without drawing blood. The side that’s just covered with sharp pointy spikes that do… what, exactly?” they wanted to know.
What DOES it do?
The top comment on the post reads that it’s for “Grating parmesan, ginger, horseradish, garlic… Basically anything you want more of a paste or powder as opposed to shreds.”
But the commenter added that they “usually just end up using the small grater or a microplane for that stuff anyway.”
“You can also grate tomatoes for juice there if you don’t have a food processor,” another Redditor wrote, sharing that it can help to pulverise garlic too.
Others shared that it doubles as a nutmeg grater, which is true (though I’ve never escaped a nutmeg grating unscathed).
Many more people agreed with the hard cheese theory, to which I say, “fear not the Parmesan shard but instead the mangled hand.”
Chef Nathan Lyon confirmed on YouTube that it was historically meant for grating aged cheeses “into a fluffy powder-like substance; the kind that you’d get at the grocery store.”
Still, I’m with commenter jason_abacabb, who wrote: “I believe it exists just to rip my sponge to pieces.”
Turns out it has a name
The side is officially called a “star grater” (ironic, given that it’s usually the last cast member on the billing).
Its raspy texture, which food site The Kitchn describes as “Medieval,” can also be used for coconut, cinnamon, and chocolate.
It CAN. But if you ask us, we haven’t seen convincing enough evidence to prove it SHOULD….
