What's the Best Way to Clean a Grater?

There are few kitchen tools more difficult to clean than a grater. Whether it's cheese, ginger, or whatever, crusty bits invariably get stuck. Save your knuckles by following these cleaning tips from the cooks at Q&A network Stack Exchange.

Jacob R Asks:

A grater is a very useful instrument in the kitchen and it's fun to use. You can use it for a lot of food: cheese, citrus fruit peel, nutmeg, all kinds of vegetables, etc. But cleaning a grater is a pain.

Anyone here knows an easy and effective way to clean a grater?

Justin Answers:

Clean it immediately, before anything has a chance to dry. As soon as I'm done grating anything, I run the grater under water and wipe it with a sponge. Wipe with the direction of the blades, then run a little water inside it. Optional: put the grater in the dishwasher to clean fully.

Theodore Murdock Answers:

The best way that I've found to clean a grater is to use a toothbrush. The bristles offer the right combo of stiffness and flexibility?they don't get caught in the blades of the grater (so you don't end up with grated toothbrush bristles)?and they are fine and tightly packed, fitting into the tiny spaces and removing stuck on bits of ginger or cheese quite well.I expect some vegetable brushes might also work well, if the bristles are thin and tightly packed. For the shredding or slicing sides, a washcloth is usually a better choice, but for the grating sides, I haven't found anything as effective as a toothbrush.

gail Answers:

Try giving your grater a spray with Pam before using. It makes it easier to dislodge small bits when cleaning.

underarock Answers:

First, if you are using the common 4 sided grater with the hard-to-clean truncated pyramid interior, say scrap it and get a microplane grater. Microplane graters aren't just a lot easier to clean, they're better at grating. But for all graters, clean immediately after use. Take a rough sponge or plastic hair brush and scrape towards yourself, or in the opposite direction you would grate.

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Illustration by Sean Gallagher.

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