Which Should You Buy: a Box Grater or a Microplane?

Much of cooking entails chopping ingredients into tiny bits, whether with a chef's knife, pureeing in a blender, or crushing garlic with a garlic press. The grater may not be the most attractive device, but it is essential for various ingredient preps, and there are primarily two versions typically seen in kitchens: the box grater and the Microplane.

The single-bladed slicing side works like a mandoline for foods like potatoes or zucchini, while the big and tiny shredding surfaces worked well with Colby cheese. The accompanying base doubles as a ginger (or horseradish, or wasabi) shredder, separating the tasty pulp from the stringy threads, making this device a five-in-one tool.

The disadvantage of box graters in general is that they are difficult to utilize in small places. It's difficult to grate when holding one over a hot burner, and the big aperture at the bottom makes it difficult to grate correctly over an individual plate, soup dish, or drinking glass. This model is also one of the more costly box graters on the market, but it will endure for years and is still a reasonable investment when compared to most other kitchen tools.

When it comes to cleaning, most stainless steel box graters, like the Cuisipro, are dishwasher-safe.

The Microplane grater, first introduced in 1991, has a sharp edge etched into each of its teeth using a chemical technique called photo-etching, resulting in a series of tiny blades that can slice off very even chunks of just about anything. (No, really, anything: The Microplane was initially offered as a woodworking tool that created easy-to-collect shreds instead of sawdust. It wasn't popular among chefs until a few years later. This is a very sturdy item that will last a long time if kept clean and dry—I'm still using the same one I got when I moved into my first apartment over ten years ago.

This original Microplane type is long and thin, designed to be held over any vessel you want, be it a boiling pot, a delicate cocktail glass, or any old mixing bowl. It works well with tougher components like aged cheeses and spices. It may also be used to produce fine garlic or ginger shreds. Because of its small openings, it can't handle huge amounts of hard fruits or vegetables and will just mush softer ones into puree. It produces exquisite, delicate strands of milder cheeses like cheddar or mozzarella, but it rapidly clogs the holes.

Cleaning the Microplane can be difficult since food particles can become lodged in the blades and require scraping to dislodge.

Should you invest in a box grater or a Microplane?

A box grater is the more versatile instrument, useful for shredding melty cheeses, slicing potatoes for chips, or transforming fruits and vegetables into a variety of textures. A box grater can handle tougher cheeses and spices, but it will never be as effective as a Microplane. Only the Microplane can produce the tiny shreds of Parmesan that will blend smoothly into a meal of pasta, and it's great for swiftly shredding hard spices into fine powder, such as nutmeg or cinnamon. If you can only have one, go for the box grater, but most kitchens require both.