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See why.The Best Rasp-Style Graters
We love the Microplane Classic, but it’s not the only rasp around anymore. Can any of the newcomers top our old favorite?
By Published May 1, 2017. Appears in Cook's Illustrated September/October 2013, America's Test Kitchen TV Season 21: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
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What You Need To Know
We use rasp-style graters to zest citrus fruits and grate hard cheeses, ginger, shallots, garlic, nutmeg, and more. One manufacturer has ruled the fine-grating roost for years—heck, it invented the game. Grace Manufacturing, the parent company of Microplane, pioneered and patented a special photographic chemical etching process that creates razor-sharp grating teeth. The company initially produced long metal rasps for woodworking but found that consumers were using them in the kitchen, too, so they added a culinary line. But their patent on this process expired in 2011, freeing other manufacturers to create their own versions of this handy tool.
The ideal rasp-style grater would make delicate shreds from a range of foods and would grate said foods evenly. The Microplane Classic Zester/Grater ($12.95) has been our longtime favorite, and while it makes perfect shreds, its narrow (1-inch) grating surface often carves into cheese, leaving behind a trench. This isn’t a deal breaker, but since we last tested, Microplane and other manufacturers have come out with new options, some with wider grating surfaces. Was our old favorite still the best? To find out, we tested it against seven new contenders, priced from $9.99 to $28.00.
Our first test was grating Parmesan cheese. We trimmed eight identical 1-ounce chunks of Parmesan, one for each model. Then we put a cutting board on a large scale so we could be sure to use the exact same amount of pressure for each swipe and started grating. Six of the graters turned in admirable times, taking between 40 and 50 seconds per ounce of cheese. A seventh model took around a minute, and the eighth took a glacial 2 minutes.
The slow model’s grating teeth seemed very tiny, so we measured the teeth on all the graters for comparison. The teeth on the sluggish grater averaged 0.9 square millimeters, while the rest of the graters’ teeth were two to four times as large, at 2.1 to 4.4 square millimeters. Wider teeth allowed the cheese to pass through at a higher rate, making for faster, more efficient grating. Because of its small teeth, the slow model also produced much finer shreds than other graters. We always recommend measuring grated cheese by weight rather than volume, since 1 cup of finely grated cheese can weigh a lot more than 1 cup of coarsely grated cheese. So these finer shreds won’t throw a recipe off as long as you weigh them; we did, however, find them a bit wimpy, and we noted that they disappeared when sprinkled on hot spaghetti.
We also looked at the shape of each grater’s teeth. All the graters except for the small-toothed model had teeth roughly shaped like the lette...
Everything We Tested
Recommended
- Speed: 3 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 3 stars out of 3.
- Grating: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This Microplane grabbed the top spot thanks to its great performance and its soft, grippy rubber handle that was slightly more comfortable and secure than that of our old winner. Otherwise, their grating surfaces are identical, so they both shredded cheese, zested lemons, and grated nutmeg, garlic, and ginger with ease. The Premium Classic came sharp, stayed sharp, and looked as good as new after testing. We do wish it had a wider surface so it didn’t form a trench in our cheese while grating, but it’s still the best option out there.
- Speed: 3 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Grating: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
Our previous winner turned in an admirable performance. Its medium-size teeth bit into cheese, lemons, and whatever else we used it on with speed and ease. It was as sharp at the end of testing as it was at the beginning, and it looked just as good, too. Its rounded plastic handle was comfortable, though harder and not as grippy as that of our winner, so we docked a few points; it also has the same cheese trenching problem. It remains a great option.
Recommended with reservations
- Speed: 3 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Grating: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
This grater had the widest teeth, at 4.36 square millimeters. They dug into Parmesan with gusto but were too wide for lemons, sinking deeply into the skin and getting stuck, often digging out too much bitter pith along with the zest. And while its handle was soft and grippy, this grater was too small and its rectangular shape felt awkward to some. Its wide 2-inch grating surface wore down the cheese more evenly than narrow-surfaced models (no gouged trenches).
- Speed: 3 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Grating: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
Testers liked this 3-inch-wide paddle grater because it didn’t carve trenches in the cheese like the narrower models did. Overall it grated fairly well, though its slightly smaller teeth didn’t dig into the food quite as well as other models, and its Parmesan shreds were more broken up (not an issue for most recipes but slightly less attractive for sprinkling). This grater worked just as well at the end of testing but had some cosmetic wear.
Not Recommended
- Speed: 2 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Grating: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
This “elite” Microplane had smaller teeth, about 2 square millimeters, that were raised enough to grip the food initially but too small to hold onto it, so cheese shreds and lemon zest went flying down its face. And its teeth were arranged in rows that ran from left to right downward, so every food we slid across its surface followed the flow of the holes and skidded off to the right. Some testers also thought its handle dug into their palms, and it looked a little beat-up at the end of testing.
- Speed: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Grating: 2 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
This grater had open teeth that bit into lemon rind too deeply, got stuck, and then removed too much white pith along with the zest. Its handle, which was small and rectangular, dug into our hands uncomfortably. It had a small plastic slider designed to clear food off the blade; it worked fairly well but wasn’t attached to the grating surface, and we lost it almost immediately down the drain.
- Speed: 1 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 3 stars out of 3.
- Grating: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
This grater had the most teeth (329), but they were the tiniest of all the models we tested (0.9 square millimeters—ranging from one-quarter to one-third the size of the other graters’ teeth). Because its teeth were so small, it grated very finely and took forever: two minutes to grate an ounce of Parmesan compared with around 40 seconds for top models. It had a comfortable handle, but it was far too slow to be a real contender.
- Speed: 2 stars out of 3.
- Comfort: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Grating: 3 stars out of 3.
- Durability: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
The teeth on this sturdy, attractive model started out very sharp, but they were wide and dug a little too deeply into the lemon rind. This model tied with another for the fastest time to grate an ounce of Parmesan: 42 seconds. But by the end of testing, its teeth had dulled considerably, and it took 1 minute and 22 seconds (twice as long) to grate a same-size chunk of cheese. We compared a new model with our testing model and could see that the used grater’s teeth were worn and flattened.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Hannah Crowley
Hannah is an executive editor for ATK Reviews and cohost of Gear Heads on YouTube.
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