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I have many memories of my mom handing me a box grater and a brick of cheddar. More than once, I tried the wrong side. You know the one—it’s pokey with sharp, little star shaped holes and it absolutely destroys everything from your carrots to your dish sponge. The other sides make sense. There’s a large grate, small shred, and thin slices. What’s up with that fourth side?
What is the fourth side of a box grater intended for?
The fourth side is supposed to be for zesting, or finely grating a given ingredient. If you’ve ever tried to zest a lemon on that side, you already know that does not happen. The punched holes are too aggressively shaped and manage to maim the lemon, zest, pith, and all. Instead of releasing flakes of the bright yellow skin so you can use it, the edges dig into the rind and capture the bits so that you can’t access much at all. Not only do you end up zestless, but you’ll have quite a task ahead at cleaning the damn thing. But not all hope is lost for this bizarre creation.
What does that side actually do well?
Forget zesting or finely grating on that side. Instead, let’s focus on its strengths: capturing fibers on the outside. While the other three sides will release your properly cut product from inside the box, this spiky side is better for gathering bits on the outside. Use the fourth side of a box grater for pulping tomatoes for sauce or crumbling hard aged cheeses. Let the grater dry out a bit and use a dry brush to loosen the stuck fibers before you wash it with soap and water. Never use a sponge. If you want to finely grate or zest anything at all, you’ll need a different tool.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
What you should use to zest instead
The rasp, or Microplane (the popular name brand), is the absolute best kitchen tool for zesting, finely grating, powdering, or paste-ifying most ingredients. You can identify a rasp by the shape of the tines. Instead of a punched star-shaped hole like on the grater, a rasp has small, sharp lifted rectangles arranged in neat rows. A rasp might be long and thin, or a wide panel with a handle. The holes are slightly bigger than the lifted metal tines, allowing the shavings to fall through easily and makes cleaning extremely easy with a soapy sponge.
These are the two rasps I use:
Microplanes or rasps are effective for fine grating and zesting because the tines are ever so slightly lifted. Instead of tearing into the lemon skin or chipping at a garlic clove, the angled edges shave off extremely thin shards. Use a rasp to grate a garlic paste that “melts” into your tomato gravy, shave thin wisps of nutmeg into your pumpkin pie recipe, or make ginger root into a paste that doesn’t have long strings or fibers. Since a rasp is flat, handheld, and usually curved, you can actually flip it and grate upward to easily assess how much zest you’ve made.
The microplane cuts small, fine shavings of dry cheeses, and creates easy pastes with other ingredients.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann
When the whole allure of a four-sided grater is to have everything you need, I can understand if you box grater lovers out there are dismayed at having to buy yet another tool. Well, it seems that the industry is catching up. There are now newer, fancier box graters that have done away with the star-hole punched fourth side and replaced it with the rasp. Here’s one from Microplane so you know it’ll deliver the results you’re looking for.
You owe it to yourself as a gift for poking yourself with the spiny-side of that old box grater for the umpteenth time. Whether you get the entire new-school box grater above or opt for a separate Microplane for your tool drawer, the rasp is a truly helpful investment that’ll give you greater precision in the kitchen.
