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Cheese graters


lindag

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1 hour ago, lindag said:

Today I was watching an Ina Garten episode where she's doing appetizers.  She ground up her Parm in her Cuisinart food processor just using her main chopping blade and it came out perfectly!

 

To me that sounds outright dangerous.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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1 hour ago, lindag said:

Today I was watching an Ina Garten episode where she's doing appetizers.  She ground up her Parm in her Cuisinart food processor just using her main chopping blade and it came out perfectly!

Yes, that may work, but as mentioned previously in this thread:

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 I don't like having to wash up my big 14-cup food processor 

 

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6 hours ago, lindag said:

Today I was watching an Ina Garten episode where she's doing appetizers.  She ground up her Parm in her Cuisinart food processor just using her main chopping blade and it came out perfectly!

I tried that with one of my smaller Cuisinarts years ago.  Broke the blade so I went back to using the big machine and the grating disc.  

I started the Cuis, dropped in a chunk of parm and there was a bang and then awful noise.  

I had to get a new bowl too because it was so scarred up stuff caught on it, in spite of me sanding all the burrs down.  

This was one of the older units and not one of those that had the recall.  

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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17 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

To me that sounds outright dangerous.

 

She actually does it all the time, using Parmesano Reggiano.  she does chunk it up a bit first.

She has said that she prefers to 'grind' the cheese this way because the texture is better and, of course, it's much faster and easier to do.

I just may try it if only to see how it works.

 

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50 minutes ago, nickrey said:

I've made grated parmesan in my Thermomix. It works exceptionally well but the combination of hard parmesan and the metal bowl means that you really have to wear hearing protection. 

Not to be picky but it’s not grated Parmesan. I use it as a shortcut and it’s great for what it is but I would never call it grated Parmesan. Crumbed  Parmesan maybe. :D

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1 hour ago, lindag said:

Ina is my hero.  If she grinds Parm in her Cuisinart food processor, who am I to argue.

 

I thought of posting a cutesy picture of my Uvex bionic face shield and hard hat draped over my DLC-7 but I am not wanting to be facetious.

 

Please don't do this.  If not for your sake, for the poor Cuisinart.  See Andie's post above.  I'm sure Ina has good insurance.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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5 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

I thought of posting a cutesy picture of my Uvex bionic face shield and hard hat draped over my DLC-7 but I am not wanting to be facetious.

 

Please don't do this.  If not for your sake, for the poor Cuisinart.  See Andie's post above.  I'm sure Ina has good insurance.

 

And don't forge this little tidbit.  Ina gets her food processors for FREE!

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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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12 hours ago, Anna N said:

Not to be picky but it’s not grated Parmesan. I use it as a shortcut and it’s great for what it is but I would never call it grated Parmesan. Crumbed  Parmesan maybe. :D

Sure, not picky, much.  For everything I use this for, who cares? Use for purpose. If I want grater, I'd use the microplane. Most of what people refer to here as needing grated parmesan requires anything but. The comment was about the noise.

Edited by nickrey (log)
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My mom used to have a Black & Decker food processor from back in the early days of food processors. A too-cold block of cheddar cheese being shoved down the feed chute promptly broke the center spindle that rotated the grating blade.

Bye-Bye Black & Decker. ¬¬

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1 hour ago, Toliver said:

My mom used to have a Black & Decker food processor from back in the early days of food processors. A too-cold block of cheddar cheese being shoved down the feed chute promptly broke the center spindle that rotated the grating blade.

Bye-Bye Black & Decker. ¬¬

 

That happened to me with a Rival food processor I'd bought, for the princely sum of $40, when I could ill afford it.  (Maybe I used birthday money for it.  It was still a major splurge.) In my case it was parmesan cheese that was too hard for the spindle.  By that time the processor was old enough that the company was out of business and no replacement parts could be had.  I'd gotten my use out of the processor, but I've been much more careful of my Cuisinart to avoid repeating that mistake.

Edited by Smithy
Corrected brand name (Rival, not Royal) (log)

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I have not yet seen it mentioned in the thread so I thought I would add that I've found an old Saladmaster manual rotary cone food processor to be perfect for shredding cheese. I hated using the food processor because of the clean up and found that when I did I would inevitably end up with half of the cheese smeared between the blade and the cover. The Saladmaster is extremely quick and easy to set up, use, and clean up. I can be through a whole chunk of cheese in less time than it would take to dig out the shredding disc and set up the food processor. I put the cone in the dishwasher and do a quick wipe down of the main unit and I'm done. They still sell for pretty good money on EBay but if you watch for awhile you'll find a deal. Even less expensive is the same set up for the accessory port on a KitchenAid mixer, which could work if you have space to keep your KitchenAid out on the counter all the time. The KitchenAid attachment has been designed with much more of a safety mindset, which I think would make it a bit less functional, but should still get the job done for shredding cheese.

Edited by EMichels (log)
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/28/2017 at 1:25 PM, Smithy said:

 

That happened to me with a Rival food processor I'd bought, for the princely sum of $40, when I could ill afford it.  (Maybe I used birthday money for it.  It was still a major splurge.) In my case it was parmesan cheese that was too hard for the spindle.  By that time the processor was old enough that the company was out of business and no replacement parts could be had.  I'd gotten my use out of the processor, but I've been much more careful of my Cuisinart to avoid repeating that mistake.

 

 

I recently saw one of the PBS food shows where one of the people dropped chunks of parm into one of the smaller Cuisinart food processors and ground the parm. The other woman said, "aren't you taking a chance grinding that with the blades?"  The first woman said, "this not the very hard parm, you can still slice it, I wouldn't do a rock-hard cheese this way, I have one of the hand-held rotary graters for the super-hard, aged parm or Pecorino."

"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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I watched another Food Network show recently, I believe it was called Baking in Vermont, or something like that.

the chef also ground her Parm in a FP, couldn't tell what brand.

The Parm she used did look like a somewhat softer type than what I usually use.  So for now I'll grate mine in my salad shooter rather than wrecking my big Cuisinart.

 

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

'Sliced up some beets in the Salad Shooter last evening.  The beets had been pressure cooked in the IP, perhaps for a bit too long as they were pretty soft when they came out.  It was more as a test of the slicing cone because they are so easy to slice with a knife.

The SS did a decent job, would have been better had the beets been firmer.  Slices a bit too thin than I'd have preferred.

I used a few in the Shrimp Louie I made for my dinner.  Not authentic but still awfully good if you're as big a fan of beets as I am.

 

Edited by lindag (log)
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  • 2 years later...

By way of an update, I've been grating my Parmesan by hand.  I confess I never once tried the new Cuisinart grating disc I bought.  The Cuisinart still works but the spindle appears cracked and I don't want to put unneeded stress on the part.

 

Last week when I grated some Parmesan I became frustrated with the aptly named hand grater.  For a long time I've been wanting the grating attachment for my Ankarsrum.  Because of the pandemic Ankarsrum parts have been almost impossible to find.  The US distributor has a page of anticipated restocking times, looking at next summer for some and no idea when for others.

 

To make a long story short, I couldn't buy just the attachments I wanted.  Pleasant Hill Grain had stock of an expensive combination set that includes the grater as well as a blender and a citrus juicer.  I already have a Blendtec and two citrus juicers but I suppose redundancy is always good.  I also had my eye on the Ankarsrum shredder/slicer set that should be good for vegetables and softer cheese.  Pleasant Hill did not have stock of the shredder/slicer, however I found them at Everything Kitchens, which is where I bought my Blendtec.

 

Pleasant Hill is experiencing virus related shipping delays, but the shredder/slicer should be here next week.  For anyone thinking about Ankarsrum attachments now might be a good time to order.

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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I've been using my large box grater for parmesan and pecorino lately. I've used a small microplane, the French moulinex grater disc, etc. etc. The box grater (a good, sharp one) works better and is basically faster than any of the others. Certainly it's not like I'm grating pounds of this stuff at a time.

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3 hours ago, weinoo said:

I've been using my large box grater for parmesan and pecorino lately. I've used a small microplane, the French moulinex grater disc, etc. etc. The box grater (a good, sharp one) works better and is basically faster than any of the others. Certainly it's not like I'm grating pounds of this stuff at a time.

 

As much as I love my Cuisipro box grater, grating Parmesan is getting too hard for me.  Granted that if I use an appliance I will have to figure out a way to break off a piece to grate.  Maybe a use for my Parmesan knife!

 

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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i do want to say it's pretty common in restaurants doing a lot of pasta to get good parm and pulverize it in the food processor rather than buy cheap bagged parm. It's used when finishing the pasta in the pan. Then microplane or whatnot for on top. 

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1 hour ago, AAQuesada said:

i do want to say it's pretty common in restaurants doing a lot of pasta to get good parm and pulverize it in the food processor rather than buy cheap bagged parm. It's used when finishing the pasta in the pan. Then microplane or whatnot for on top. 

 

Though I doubt most establishments are pulverizing the 105 euro per kilo stuff that I am using.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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True dat! The point is to emulsify it into the sauce so you would use something younger saving the food stuff for other things. But really the point of my comment is that there is nothing wrong with using a food processor for parmesan just that different tools for different outcomes 

 

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10 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Though I doubt most establishments are pulverizing the 105 euro per kilo stuff that I am using.

 

This establishment might be - where do you source yours?

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