what is a grater

A grater is a kitchen utensil used to grate foods into fine pieces. It is a tool that slices, grinds, and cuts food into shapes, such as strips or bits, so the ingredient can be evenly dispersed. Graters come in various sizes and types, with different sizes of grating slots. Some graters have a surface glide technology to allow foods to easily move from one end of the surface to another, so you can shred, shave, zest, and grate without tearing or puncturing the food. Graters are commonly used to grate potatoes for dishes such as draniki, bramborak, or potato babka in Slavic cuisine. In tropical countries, graters are also used to grate coconut meat. In the Indian subcontinent, the grater is used for preparation of a popular dessert, Gajar Ka Halwa. Graters produce shreds that are thinner at the ends than the middle, which allows the grated material to melt or cook in a different manner than the shreds of mostly uniform thickness produced by the grating blade of a food processor. Hand-grated potatoes, for example, melt together more easily in a potato pancake than food-processed potato shreds.