[Bill McCarthy]

I hate the chore of grating parmesan cheese. Any good electric ones on the market ?

[flybymike]

This is one of those mundane tasks which I find very therapeutic.
In our household we have a little mechanical device with a hopper into which the cheese block is inserted and held compressed against a grater with a handle which is turned to produce lovely fluffy stuff.
I think we bought it from Lakeland.

[Charles Hunt]

Don't you have a wife?

More seriously how much are you grating? This is not something normally done in industrial quanties.

Does it taste OK on porridge?

[Pete L]

I'd never imagined the dolce vita making it up to Wick - I'd always assumed Bill had salt on his porridge. It'll be rosemary with the lamb next, instead of mint sauce.

[Bill McCarthy]

I think my wife keeps Lakeland going. I can see it - hold the redundancies, Mrs M has an order coming through. Grated parmesan on porridge has a certain appeal, must try it.

[stevelup]

What you need is a good grater.

Microplane 'Fine' is a joy to use.

[JonathanB]

What you need is a good grater.

Microplane 'Fine' is a joy to use.

Looks like that's to remove hard skin from your feet!

[nallen]

Get yourself a Microplane, Bill. The woodworking ones work grate [sorry!], and are usually cheaper than the ponced-up kitchen versions. (You need a torquey motor to grate parmesan, given the pressure you have to apply. Italian grocers in Italy often have semi-industrial graters, but I've not seen one in domestic use.)

[Crossed with JonathanB's post!]

[mancpilot]

What you need is a good grater.

Microplane 'Fine' is a joy to use.

Clearly you've all been buying them in droves. That link says:

Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

[stevelup]

Ha - sure they are available elsewhere!

[flybymike]

What you need is a good grater.

Microplane 'Fine' is a joy to use.

Looks like that's to remove hard skin from your feet!

Steve has cheesy feet.

[Sir Morley Steven]

Moulinex do a rotary one which will dispatch a whole lump in seconds. Most Italian restaurants have them along with those superb gizmos for collecting crumbs and depositing them in the handle.

[HowardC]

I've been using a Culinare One Touch Automatic Power Grater for three or four years now. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Culinare-C53100-Touch-Power-Grater/dp/B002DGTAQE. (Available on plenty of other sites too.)

It came with two blades and a storage pot. There's one fine blade for parmesan and other hard cheeses. The coarse blade is for softer cheeses like cheddar. It says that it can be used for grating nuts and chocolate as well but I've never bothered . I’ve never had much use for the storage pot because I grate directly over pasta or whatever. It’s battery driven and last about a year with occasional use. I guess re-chargeable could be used for more frequent use? It’s not rapid but works quickly enough to be able to spread the cheese around as it’s being grated.

[PeteSpencer]

This is one of those mundane tasks which I find very therapeutic.
In our household we have a little mechanical device with a hopper into which the cheese block is inserted and held compressed against a grater with a handle which is turned to produce lovely fluffy stuff.
I think we bought it from Lakeland.

+ 1

Great gadget and can be stored full,and ready to go in the fridge.

And dishwasher proof.

[Charles Hunt]

Ye Gods, have I really remembered a thread from 8 years ago?

Anyway Bill, just returned with a spare curved hand held one which works remarkably well. If you don't mind pming me an address I'll happily send it to you.