Get The Most Out Of Your Cheese Grater And Use It For This As Well

Humans have probably been grating cheese for as long as cheese has existed. In Homer's epic poem "The Iliad" (from the 8th century B.C.) there's a line about grated goat cheese. Ancient Greek cheese graters have been found in burial sites. And these weren't just the graves of cooks, they belonged to warriors. Grated food was a big deal that carried some prestige back in the day. However, some historians have argued that these graters weren't used for cheese at all. Why would a great warrior take a cheese grater to the afterlife? Surely they were used for adding rare and valuable spices into wine, or anything more esteemed than humble cheese. Maybe we'll never know, but it raises an important point. A cheese grater is useful for much more than just cheese, or even spices. For instance, you can use one to make breadcrumbs.

Cheese graters are one of those versatile kitchen tools with multiple uses. A box grater is the perfect gadget for shaving down an old crust of white bread, or a heartier choice like toasted ciabatta. The resulting fresh breadcrumbs are perfect for meatloaf or as a soup thickener. In fact, we have 12 great ways to use breadcrumbs, including as crispy garnishes and crunchy coatings.

You could argue that the name cheese grater is what throws most of us off. It's suggesting a single purpose, but you don't need to be bound by that. Why limit yourself to cheese when making fresh breadcrumbs is just as easy?

Making breadcrumbs with a cheese grater couldn't be easier. Set a box grater on your cutting board or in a bowl large enough to hold it comfortably. The drier your bread is, the better this will work. Toast it first or dry it out in the oven to help reduce moisture and make it crusty. About 10 minutes in a 300-degree Fahrenheit oven should be enough. If your bread has already gone stale, this is still a great way to use it.

If the bread is too large, cut it down into smaller pieces that you can easily handle. From here, it's just a matter of grating the bread like you would cheese. If it's dry enough, it should break apart easily and reduce to crumbs in seconds. If you need them to be much finer, you could always pulse them in a food processor. But a handheld grater will be quicker and simpler, with fewer parts to wash at the end. 

Much like the ancient Greeks may have used their graters for multiple jobs, you can use yours for more than just cheese and breadcrumbs. Nutmeg into coffee, chocolate on a dessert, potatoes for hash browns, cold butter into your pastry dough. There's a lot your grater can do without ever touching a brick of cheese.